RMA Leads The Charge: Progress Through Partnership In Worker Protection

As the mining industry prepares to gather at Mining Indaba, conversations once again turn to the future of mineral commodities, communities and the people whose labour moves the mining sector.

For Rand Mutual Assurance, that future is neither abstract nor distant. It is shaped daily through partnership and the practical work of safeguarding the everyday heroes who power the mining ecosystem.

Mining has always been a high-risk environment.

It is also one of the most interconnected systems in the economy, where decisions made in one part of the value chain can have far-reaching consequences elsewhere.

In this context, worker protection is not only a compliance requirement. It is also a strategic lever. When protection systems fail, consequences are far-reaching.

The Mining Indaba theme, Stronger together: Progress through partnerships, speaks directly to this reality.

The challenges facing the sector, from safety and sustainability to technological change and social legitimacy, cannot be addressed by individual actors working in isolation.

They require coordination, trust, and shared accountability across employers, labour, regulators, healthcare providers, and insurers.

This is where partnership moves from rhetoric to responsibility.

RMA’s role has evolved alongside the changing industry it serves.

Established as a mutual insurer to support injured mineworkers, the organisation has grown into a partner focused on prevention, rehabilitation, and long-term well-being of all mining employees.

This evolution reflects a belief that insurance alone does not keep people safe. Integrated processes and systems do.

Relationships do. Trust does.

Safeguarding everyday heroes, the workers, requires more than financial cover after an incident has occurred.

It demands collaboration before harm happens, effective response when it does, and sustained support through recovery and reintegration. Worker protection is therefore not an isolated function.

It is the connective tissue that holds the mining safety system together.

Worker injuries are not just incidents.

Workers are not claiming numbers.

They are a parent, a community member, and a breadwinner.

RMA’s partnership model is most visible in its approach to rehabilitation and return to work after an injury.

By working closely with employers, medical practitioners, and organised labour, RMA helps enable faster intervention, coordinated care, and meaningful pathways back to work wherever possible.

This partnership approach recognises that safer workplaces deliver value well beyond the individual.

Reduced downtime, retained skills, and improved labour relations enhance operational resilience.

They also signal to communities and investors that the industry takes its responsibilities seriously and understands that long-term success depends on the protection and well-being of workers.

As the industry navigates energy transition pressures, rising environmental, social, and governance expectations, and rapid technological change, there is a temptation to focus only on what is new.

Yet progress is not always about novelty.

Often, it is about basics such as alignment, ensuring that people, processes, and purpose are moving in the same direction.

Worker protection is one of the few areas where such alignment delivers immediate and tangible impact.

It brings together prevention, care, accountability, and trust in a way that few other interventions can.

Leadership in this space is less about declarations and more about consistency.

It is about showing up in policy discussions and on-site, in boardrooms and hospitals, and doing the work that allows the system to function better tomorrow than it did yesterday.

As Mining Indaba approaches, the central question facing the industry is not whether mining can grow in Africa, but whether it can do so while safeguarding the people who make that growth possible.

RMA’s experience continues to show that the answer lies in partnership, with steady hands on the wheel and a shared commitment to ensuring that progress never comes at the expense of people getting home safely.

•  Mandla Shezi is the Group CEO for Rand Mutual Assurance.