Non-communicable diseases
Conditions and diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes mellitus and various
cancers are emerging healthcare issues in developing countries. We are implementing control
programmes at all our operations in this regard.
Health and safety management systems
The NOSA Integrated Five-star System covering safety, health and environmental management is
implemented at our cane growing and factory operations, all of which were accredited with a minimum
Four-Star NOSA rating during the year under review. Both Merebank and Glendale in South Africa have
received Occupational Health and Safety Management System OHSAS 18001:1999 accreditation.
Occupational safety
Our overall safety performance has shown a positive downward trend year-on-year with significant
improvements achieved at some of our operations. During the period under review, a total of 13
operations worked for 12 months and longer without a lost time injury compared to 9 operations the
previous year. The group 12 month rolling disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR) reduced from 0.11 to
0.10 and the total injury frequency rate (TIFR) reduced from 2.17 to 1.75. The recordable case rate
(RCR) improved by 54% from 0.97 to 0.45.
Our South African operations continued to reduce their 12 month-rolling DIFR. The DIFR reduced by 33
% from 0.15 to 0.10. The “Target ZERO” campaign, one of the key safety improvement drivers that was
developed in South Africa, has been rolled out to all the operations in our drive to share best practice
and to further improve our safety performance.
Our goal is to achieve an increasingly safer workplace while promoting a culture of safety among staff so
that injuries are reduced and safety rules are understood and upheld. Each operation has developed
safety improvement strategies to ensure robust processes are implemented to manage health and safety
and to further reduce the risks associated with the work activities of our contractors and their equipment.
These processes are implemented in accordance with the statutory requirements of the relevant in-
country occupational health and safety regulations, as well as group policies. Health and safety
committees are active at each operation, with full staff representation, reporting directly to senior
management to ensure compliance with all internal and legal requirements.
Regrettably, one of our own employees and one contractor employee died while performing routine
activities. These incidents, as for every fatality, were reviewed thoroughly in a robust incident-
investigation process led by senior management, following which preventative measures were
implemented and shared with operations across the group.
