Recognising our FY26 safety champions

Having won the Q2 Safety Guarantee Award, Team 2 – Potline 2 and Reduction Services at our Hillside Aluminium operation in South Africa have now been named the Annual CEO Safety Guarantee Champions for FY26.

Now at the end of its second year, the Safety Guarantee Awards recognise our people and teams who are turning our ‘safety guarantee’, an internal approach to creating a sense of chronic unease to enhance our safety culture, into action. By celebrating these stories, we can learn from one another and encourage more people to make safety improvements where they work.

This accolade recognises the team’s work to eliminate a high risk, routine task from the pot rooms - an improvement made possible through strong collaboration between frontline employees, operations, engineering and maintenance.

Previously performed up to 10 times each day, the anode beam raising task required people to manually raise collapsible handrails and climb onto an elevated platform. Once there, they would connect electrical plugs and pneumatic hoses to 29-tonne hooks, exposing them to working at heights and manual handling risks.

Recognising an opportunity to eliminate the hazard altogether, the team challenged a task that had been performed in much the same way for many years. They redesigned the work method so that all electrical and pneumatic connections can now be made at ground level, removing the need for anyone to climb the platform or interact with the collapsible handrails.

For Buhle Gumbi, Supervisor Potline 2 and Reduction Services, the improvement is an example of why challenging established ways of working is so important – even when change can initially be difficult.

“It can be hard to make a change when something has been done the same way for a decade, but once we see the benefit, we adapt,” Buhle said. When asked about the team’s culture, she likened them to family and said the experience had also reinforced the strong sense of support she feels when speaking up for safety.

The team also credits the success of the improvement to the combined effort behind it, with people closest to the work joining forces with maintenance and other teams to find a safer way forward.

“This was a combined effort. The shop floor and maintenance were both affected, and we came together to find a solution that would make our working environment safer,” said Bandla Simelane, Maintenance Potline 2 and Reduction Services.

What was once a high-risk activity performed multiple times every day has now been transformed into a safer, ground-based task, demonstrating what can happen when our people live our safety guarantee, challenge for safety, and feel empowered to speak up.

Our CEO Matt Daley proudly made the announcement and congratulated Buhle, Bandla and their team at a Group-wide event on 27 August 2026. Upon presenting the award, Matt noted that this improvement has the potential to influence safer outcomes across the entire Hillside operation.

It’s a great example of strong processes and systems being put into practice to make a real difference for our people. Congratulations to the team and everyone involved in the project on this impressive achievement.