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Let’s be honest – here in South Africa, we’re pretty smug when it comes to our weather and climate. No earthquakes, volcanoes or other horrendous natural disasters so often reported in other parts of the world (Asia seems particularly hard hit of late).

And then last week happened. On Tuesday afternoon, Tembisa residents were shocked to witness a funnel-shaped formation tearing through the area, damaging a number of shacks, a local mall and the Tembisa Hospital. Now the community is slowly assessing and repairing the damage.

Tornadoes are uncommon in South Africa – but not as rare as you might think
Here are some of the biggest tornadoes to hit South Africa in recent years:
• 15 November 1998: Harrismith
750 homes damaged or destroyed.
• 16 December 1998: Umtata
11 people killed (former President Nelson Mandela was visiting the town at the time).
• 18 January 1999: Mount Ayliff
25 people killed, 500 injured, 95% of people in the area lost their homes.
• August 1999: Surrey Estate, Marenberg and Gugulethu
Five people killed (including a baby), 5 000 homeless, 180 injured.
• October 2011: Duduza and Ficksburg
One child killed, hundreds left homeless.

There is no single, universal health and safety solution. Every situation is different, every company is unique. This means there will be a range of factors you’ll need to consider when assessing your workplace’s risk, and the measures you’ll enforce to manage and minimise these. Here are six services or products that you may need to consider and what to look for when selecting a service provider…

As a health and safety professional, you want to ensure that you have everything that is absolutely necessary to managing and minimising risk in your workplace. But, even in health and safety, there is such a thing as overkill. What you need is a benchmark against which you can assess your internal health and safety processes, to ensure you meet the minimum legal requirements.

Here are the three non-negotiable elements you must include. (Please note: this is not a finite list and there will be other elements you will need to include depending on the nature of your business.)

Health and safety doesn't stop at the office. In fact, health and safety concerns are just as - if not more - important at home! There's a variety of potential health and safety hazards in your home which you may not even know about, so we've put together a list of the 46 things a health and safety expert would never have in their home. Make your home safe and read the full infographic below.

Sometimes, the best way to motivate someone is through being a ‘cheerleader’. Anyone who supports an organised sport will agree. Now is your chance to do the same when it comes to implementing a health and safety culture in your workplace. The following tips will help you become your company’s health and safety advocate. (If you are an employer, how you promote good SHE principles and processes in your workplace will differ slightly from your behaviour as an employee. We’ve provided both options.)

Perhaps the title of this blog is a little misleading. We are not saying that the following are unsafe actions unique to South Africa – rather, these are some of the most glaring and unsafe trends that occur (and recur) in the country. Along with highlighting them, we offer some tips on how to ensure you (and your employees/colleagues) are not guilty of perpetuating them.

On October 14 2015, South Africa was left reeling when the bridge under construction over the M1 at Grayston collapsed, killing two people and injuring 19 others. Since then, several attempts have been made by the Department of Labour (DoL) to conduct an inquiry into the incident, and the causes behind it. Here we take a look at the state of the inquiry as of now, as well as what we can learn from a health and safety point of view.

Sometimes you may find it tough to talk to your boss about workplace safety, but it’s important and it has to be done. Employers need to know about workplace hazards so they can take the necessary steps to implement policies and procedures to protect you and your fellow employees.

 The few minutes it takes to talk and find a solution is nothing compared to the impact if you don’t alert your boss to a hazard and this inaction results in an injury (or worse, fatality). But, sometimes it’s just about finding the right approach when it comes to how best to broach the subject with your particular boss.

 Here are six simple tips to help you start the conversation…

Health and safety is everyone's responsibility, but knowing exactly what each person in your organisation needs to focus on is the key to ensuring that no health and safety concerns fall through the cracks. 

NOSA has put together this useful checklist you can use to make sure your health and safety training is up to scratch, whether you're a health and safety manager, or a layman on a worksite. Use this guide to keep safe.