OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday
SOUTH African police announced the arrest on Monday of the owner and the manager of a factory in which 11 workers burnt to death three days ago after being locked in.
The workers were killed late Friday when a fire raged through the ESS Chemicals factory near Johannesburg.
A senior government official who inspected the site said the doors and gates had been locked, and police are also investigating charges that flammable chemicals, including white spirits, had been stored in the factory illegally.
The chemicals are believed to have been spilt near a gas burner, starting the fire and subsequent explosion of bottles of gas. Police representative Richard Luvhengo said late Monday that the owner and the manager were being questioned, but were not immediately charged.
They could face murder charges or alternatively culpable homicide, along with arson and violating laws relating to workplace safety and the storage of chemicals, he said.
The two men are expected to make a brief court appearance on Tuesday.
Luvhengo did not name the two men because they had not yet appeared in court, but the factory owner is known to be Solly Lachporia. Luvhengo said that even if it were found that the chemicals had been forgotten inside the factory, Lachporia would still be charged with culpable homicide.
Politicians and angry relatives had bayed for Lachporia’s arrest since the fire, which left the 11 victims – 10 of them women – burned beyond recognition.
Conditions at the factory have become the focus of government and public outrage.
South Africa’s top labour official, Rams Ramashia, said the workers were trapped in the burning building as the doors had been locked from the outside, leaving them with no escape route.
Ramashia said labour inspectors had taken photographs of the locks and that the department could bring charges related to workplace conditions.
He added that even if the doors had not been locked, the owner had failed to provide his workers with emergency exits.
Margaret Washington, a worker who did not go to work on Friday night, has told the press that the owner always locked the workers in because he was afraid they would steal items from the factory. – AFP