One of the country’s most high risk ferrometal producer Assmang is caught again in a fatal blast which killed four metalworkers in Cato Ridge, Pietermaritzburg.

Assmang management was forced to shut down operations yesterday (Sunday) after furnace number 6 exploded at 4:30 in the Sunday morning, leaving four workers dead in an inferno of fire.

This occurred on the eve of the extraordinary public enquiry on Monday to determine the causes of the weakening manganese disease which affects several employees in the plant.

Three others were still admitted in the Pietermaritzburg hospital with raging fire burns and one was earlier discharged.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is gravely disturbed to learn that the furnace was earlier shut down by company engineers after it was detected to have a water leakage.

“We do not know how and why it was operated by the night shift staff operators, because it was declared unsafe to put it (furnace) in operation and we believe drastic steps after thorough investigations should be taken,” Numsa local organizer Siphiwe Ntsele said yesterday.

It is the second blast in three months after one worker was killed in a similar smelt ore explosion in December 14, 2007. It followed after another blast in 2006.

There have been so many of these accidents and health hazard incidents in the company and we believe the Labour Ministry must find the company guilty and take stern action against it for flouting all the labour regulations.

Our members have decided that they will not return to work until the department of labour has brought in independent experts to investigate whether it is safe to operate the furnaces and that the company abides by international safety standards.

Numsa has launched a health and safety campaign last week to promote safety awareness in the workplace and to ensure that workers refuse to work in unsafe environments.

For further information contact:

Mziwakhe Hlangani, Numsa national spokesperson

Cell phone: 082 9407116

E-mail : mziwakheh@numsa.org.za

Source

Numsa Press Releases