An inexperienced safety inspector had been sent to investigate a complaint against Esschem factory in Lenasia a month before it burnt down
Glenda Daniels
The Lenasia factory fire that killed 11 people two months ago could have been prevented. National Department of Labour inspectors say an inexperienced and unqualified occupational and health safety inspector was sent to Lenasia a month before the blaze with an out-of-date map book and could not find the factory. He reported that his mission had not been accomplished, but his superiors failed to follow it up.
Today the killer-house factory, Esschem, in Anchorville, Lenasia, stands blackened, razed to the ground and bare of machinery or workers.
Safety inspectors say if the department had not insisted on integrating specialised functions into one inspectorate, the fire could have been prevented. They are putting the blame for the deaths squarely on what they call the “chaotic and illogical” integration process, which entails one person fulfilling many functions leading, they say, to inexperienced staff investigating workplace safety issues, with disastrous consequences, such as the Lenasia fire.
And while infighting about the integration process continues, a backlog of more than 700 accidents have not been investigated.
Last year 96 inspectors filed complaints and grievances to the department because they felt worker health and safety would be compromised through the integration exercise, wherein inspectors are expected to deal with a range of issues from Unemployment Insurance Fund matters to engineering checks. After they found their complaints were not being addressed, 31 resigned. Some have now launched constructive dismissal claims with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
In the case of the Esschem factory, Sam Ntwampe, a learner inspector who is young, inexperienced and not fully qualified, was sent to Lenasia in October last year to investigate an official complaint drawn up in August by three women, known only as Sylvia, Catherine and Lucia.
“He went out to Lenasia with an old map book and could not find the factory, as the address did not appear in the map book,” said an inspector, who asked not to be named.
“In addition, he was driving a hired car, which had to be back at a certain time. He got back to the Department of Labour and reported that he had not found the factory.
“Had his superior then followed up with a more experienced inspector, they would have found workers locked up with gas cylinders for 16 hours at a time, a fire extinguisher that did not work and no windows or fans for fresh air and no alarm bell. These workers had no recourse to fire precautionary measures.”
Ntwampe was asked to appear before a disciplinary hearing but after much protest from his colleagues that he should not take the blame for departmental ineptitude, two of his team leaders have been suspended instead. Another inspector has been charged with misconduct for “talking to the media” about the incident.
Department of Labour representative Faiza Salle claims there is “at most, a tenuous link” between the fire and the integration process, “because although the integration process has not been easy, it was not the cause of the fire. The cause of the fire is due to negligence on the part of the employer, who failed to provide for the health and safety of his employees.”
She said the official sent out to investigate the complaint had gone through the learner inspector scheme and was familiar with the operations of the inspectorate.
The issue of expecting one inspector to perform a range of specialised functions goes back to 1999.
A member of the bargaining council for the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union, Peter Kgatle, an inspector who recently resigned, says: “The department wants to reduce this to a white male transformation issue, but it’s not the case. The blacks that remain are just waiting to leave.
‘We do not believe that counting toilets, which is what they are doing, is beneficial to community. Structured training needs to happen but this is not taking place. Since the integration process everything has collapsed. In my letter of resignation I mentioned that the Lenasia fire could have been prevented.”
Natalie Skeepers, another inspector who resigned, said: “This is not an issue about white males resisting transformation. I’m not white and I’m not a man. After the integration process the whole [occupational and health safety] programme collapsed. There was no direction on projects and targeted industries. We were managing by crisis. Staff morale was low, people were resigning in droves. Vacancies were not filled. There was a problem of resources for instance, using hired cars. What happens in a fatality?
“Job descriptions changed and we had to perform labour relations work and not what we were qualified to do. Specialist functions died. Safety is not valued, it’s treated as second-hand.”
A black male inspector who resigned last month said: “It became difficult to do accident investigations what we were trained for. Occupational and health safety was compromised. This had nothing to do with colour but is just a stupid decision on the part of the government. It’s an imported policy from Australia integrating with no training.”