Safety officer combines career experience with higher learning

Phindile Cindi, Gugulethu Safety Officer

By the end of 2025, Gugulethu’s Safety Officer, Phindile Cindi, hopes to obtain her Disaster and Safety Management degree, further expanding her qualifications in the field to which she devoted her life. Phindile, from Driefontein on the outskirts of Mkhondo in Mpumalanga, has worked in the coal mining industry for 21 years, holding different positions, including an underground general worker, a plant attendant, and a production controller. Health and Safety was always a common thread throughout Phindile’s career. In every department, she was elected as the health and safety rep. She was ultimately elected the full-time Health and Safety Representative at Gugulethu’s sister mine, Kangra in 2013.

Phindile believes it was health and safety that opened the door to her academic journey, which did not progress as quickly as she would have liked. “After I completed matric in 1997, there was no money for me to study further so I went to volunteer at the local clinic. I’m not sure if there were government student funding schemes at the time but I was hoping to find work so I can pay for my studies,” she explains. Phindile went on to do different short-term jobs as a Statistics SA Census field worker and then doing voter registrations for the Independent Electoral Commission.

Before joining the mining industry, Phindile worked as a Post Office agent, where she also showcased her business skills. She ran a small business using a mobile post office container, selling everything from fireworks to stationery and gifts. Phindile decided to put her Post Office days behind her when she joined mining in 2003, and she has zero regrets. “I love learning new things, and with health and safety, I get to do that all the time,” she says. She has attended various training courses and obtained her certificate as a safety officer and a diploma in Middle Management from the University of the North West. Her current job as a safety officer at Gugulethu includes ensuring compliance on health and safety-related matters, updating medical surveillance records, assisting with hazard identification, and conducting safety inspections, amongst other things