Assessing level of compliance with Safety regulations in Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality

Abstract

Concerns for safety in the work environment are on the rise, but often overlooked by management. In local municipalities across South Africa, staff’s safety is guaranteed in terms of legislation, but the implementation of these legislations remains a challenge. Furthermore, employees at municipalities should be well vested with safety requirements in the workplace for compliance to be effective. However, this has not been happening in the Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality in South Africa. This study focused on assessing the level of compliance with safety regulations in a Local Municipality of South Africa. A descriptive research design was followed to explore the safety regulations and legislations associated with the municipality environment of South Africa. The population of this study includes all municipality workers stationed in multiple departments and sites of the Local Municipality. A total of 536 employees work for the Local Municipality, and a sample of 210 respondents was selected using a stratified probability random approach. Findings from the study show that municipality workers most exposed to environments in the execution of duties are those linked to wastewater and water treatment, maintenance of infrastructure, fire environment as well as roads and stormwater environments. The results also revealed that employees who work in these departments are exposed to higher risks compared to municipal administrators and they need to be constantly monitored, oriented and trained in terms of compliance with safety legislation. The study has also shown that challenges such as lack of safety equipment and lack of supervision affect compliance by employees with safety regulations at Municipality levels. The study, through its findings, recommends that municipal council and management should device strategies to enforce supervision and provide equipment in compliance with safety rules and legislation. The study concludes that municipalities must ensure that the constant monitoring and supervision of staff and the enforcement of compliance with safety regulations through education and continuous training of employees on occupational safety matters are pursued. Further research in this domain may investigate collaborative ways of implementing safety regulations in the workplace.