Pumalo Africa delivered an industrial theatre presentation at the BHP Billiton manganese mines in the northern cape. The performance united the management and safety efforts of the the Hotazel Manganese Mines 2010 Safety Week and proved to be successful in communicating and developing better understanding of safe behaviour practice.

Hotazel is a place in the hot sun of the karoo where you can appreciate the cool of the shade of a tree. Its is becoming a place that is growing into a town of choice and a community of hope. The 2010 Safety Week ran a theme of reminding the people of Hotazel to ‘use your head’ so that we can all ‘do it right, first time’. And leading from the front was the general manager Mr Janse Van Vuuren who participated personally on 9 of the 11 events. His powerful presentation of the vision and values of HMM was matched by his passion and concern for the people who make up Hotazel.

Leading the flow of manganese was Mr Peter Beaven, president BHP Billiton Manganese, who made his contribution to the week as he reminded the audience that safety comes before profit and that if each person does their part all can achieve zero harm. Messrs Beaven and Van Vuuren then handed out recognitions to achievers in safety and production at HMM.

Sharing critical information from incidents and the performance of the last year is a valuable process of empowering people. We can learn from both the achievements and miss fortunes of others. In this way everyone can grow on their journey to zero harm. With a clear understanding of the behaviour based safety tools and systems HMM will realise the objective of a white flag day, every day, one day at a time.

Communicating the company objectives and expressing the desired behaviours that are needed could not have been done better that through the passionate industrial theatre that formed a pivotal part of the week. Telling a story that all can all relate to helped unpack the role of the behaviour based safety strategy and the tools that are available to help prevent accidents at HMM.

All in all the HMM working team and the HSEC department managed to take a great step forward in communicating desired behaviours that foster a culture of safe behaviour practice. There is a bright future at Hotazel Manganese Mines. Working together, remembering their pacts, they can achieve their business objectives through a culture of zero harm as more and more people do the right things, at the right times, doing it right the first time. As they say at Hotazel, "A white flag day. Every day. One day at a time."