In a YouTube clip that Anglo released last week titled, “Mark Cutifani on safety: a defining moment”, Cutifani described that moment came when he was 22 and his then-mentor died.

“A defining moment for me in my career was at 22 years of age I was working underground as a miner, and one of the guys that was elected to train me and help me understand he ropes, understand in particular safety, was Stanley Baker,” Cutifani said.

“Stanley – about 50 years of age, Englishman, Yorkshire miner, lots of experience – was there to show me the ropes and help me understand the things I should be doing to make sure I was looking after myself and my colleagues.

“One night on night shift – I was on the day shift – Stanley was actually hit and caught under a fall of the roof and was killed. For me that was a very personal situation and I actually saw Stanley on the way out, and he was with six of his colleagues that were with him at the time.

“So safety had become very personal. For me in the last 33 years I’ve focused on who people are, making sure I got to know them personally, and making sure everything we do in the workplace is about looking after people and making it very personal.

“If you can’t make it personal, if you can’t demonstrate that you care for people, why do you think people would go out of their way to deliver the best they can for you – whether it’s in safety; or more broadly in the business, if you don’t demonstrate as a leader that you’re about people and you stand for people, then don’t expect them to support you in achieving the objectives of the organisation.

“For me, leadership is about caring and demonstrating that caring, and safety is I think the most compelling example of how we care for people and who we are and the humanity as we have as leaders.”