Sub-standard practices and their adverse impact on safety performanceremain a challenge in the South African gold mining industry. The purposeof this study was to investigate the root causes of sub-standard practicesand the effect on safety performance in South African gold mines. Thefocus of the study was on the underground production operations at a goldmine in the Free State. The study consisted of three parts: a personalinvestigation into the causes of sub-standard practices at the mine, acomparison with the results of a cultural study performed at the West Witsmines, and a behavioural survey.The studies described in this article yielded similar results in terms ofthe key drivers behind sub-standard practices. It was found that substandardpractices had a number of causes, and the origin lies within thehabits, attitude, and behaviour of employees. Current methods ofaddressing sub-standard practices and improving safety performance werefound to discourage employees from performing work safely and accordingto procedure.It was concluded that the lack of critical behavioural habits for thegiven work environment and job title could possibly be the primary reasonfor the occurrence of sub-standard practices.
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