“VUT’s Safety Management programme hosted an OHS workshop with ESKOM expert Ms Matlou Ratladi, equipping 200 students with practical workplace safety insights.”
25 August 2026 | Story by: Tayron Mhlongo | Picture: Keitumetse Mokgope
3 minutes read time.
For nearly 200 third-year Safety Management students at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), workplace hazards moved beyond textbooks and lecture notes when an experienced industry professional brought the realities of occupational health and safety into the classroom.
The Safety Management programme, housed within the Department of Legal Sciences, hosted an occupational health and safety workshop on 18 August 2026 as part of the Safety Principles and Practice 3 module. The session was designed to expose students to the responsibilities, pressures and decisions they are likely to face in the workplace.
Leading the discussion was Ms Matlou Ratladi, an experienced Health and Safety Officer at Eskom, whose work involves managing safety risks around high-voltage transmission lines and substations.
Drawing on her experience in the energy sector, where a single oversight can have serious consequences, Ms Ratladi unpacked the practical demands of the profession and challenged students to see safety as a daily responsibility rather than a compliance exercise.
“Safety is everywhere,” she told the students. “Hazards exist in every established organisation, and as upcoming safety officers, you must always be conscious of them. Safety is not optional; it is essential.”
She explained that the central responsibility of occupational health and safety professionals is to understand, protect and promote the well-being of people across different working environments.
Ms Ratladi also outlined the competencies students will need as they enter the profession. These include understanding and correctly applying the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993), identifying hazards before they result in incidents, assessing risks and implementing appropriate control measures.
Beyond technical knowledge, she emphasised the importance of clear communication, employee participation, ethical leadership and continuous professional development. Safety officers, she said, must remain informed about legislative changes, emerging risks and developments in occupational health and safety practice.
“A safe workplace is everyone’s responsibility,” she said, reinforcing the importance of shared accountability in building an effective safety culture.
Safety Management lecturer Ms Boipelo Bhuda said the workshop was organised to address the limited practical exposure students receive before completing their qualification.
“Our students are immersed in theory, but that alone is not enough, particularly because they do not undertake work-integrated learning before completing the programme,” she said. “It was important to bring someone from the field to help them understand what is really happening in the workplace.”
For third-year student Ms Marape Tiego, the discussion transformed familiar academic concepts into a clearer picture of professional life.
“I felt as though I was already in the work environment,” she said. “As Ms Ratladi spoke about hazards and risks, I could see myself in that setting. It made everything we have learnt in class feel real.”
The workshop gave students more than an overview of workplace expectations. It allowed them to imagine themselves as practising safety officers, responsible for protecting lives and cultivating workplaces where safety becomes part of the organisational culture.
As VUT marks 60 years of academic excellence, initiatives of this nature reflect the University’s commitment to applied, industry-relevant education. By bringing frontline expertise into the classroom, the Safety Management programme is helping students move from knowing safety principles to understanding how those principles protect people in the real world.