Marianne Merten
Western Cape labour inspectors are starting a formal investigation into the explosion at Denel’s Swartklip ammunition factory in Khayelitsha outside Cape Town.
One woman was killed and six workers injured when an explosion rocked the shotgun cartridge assembly line on Thursday morning. The manufacturing room was wrecked in the blast, but the area is relatively small and deep inside the plant.
The incident is the latest in a series of explosions and fires that over the past three years have lead to the death of at least two workers at the Swartklip factory a restricted area in terms of the apartheid-era National Key Points Act and subject to tight access control.
In 1997 the Swartklip munitions factory also came under scrutiny when a number of M26 hand grenades believed to have been stolen from the premises were linked to various attacks between gangsters and anti-drug vigilantes on the Cape Flats.
Head of the provincial Department of Labour’s inspection and enforcement unit Rudelle van der Merwe said an inspector had gone to the scene shortly after the incident to take photographs and conduct preliminary interviews.
The formal investigation in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act will look at the safety record of the machine used to fill the shotgun shells, its maintenance records and whether any problems had been reported.
According to initial police reports it appears that a shotgun shell became stuck in a specialised machine that fills the shells with gunpowder, propellants and pellets. The ammunition ignited, leading to the blast. It is understood the fully automated machine was imported 18 months ago.
Denel corporate affairs director Thembi Tulwana said the company had implemented all necessary safety measures required by legislation.
”In view of this incident, any company should be worried to ask what has
gone wrong,” Tulwana said. ”We have complied with everything that we should.”
Western Cape police representative Superintendent Riaan Pool confirmed the explosion is being treated as an industrial accident. He said police would investigate together with inspectors from the Department of labour.
Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe expressed his shock at the blast, while Denel said it would be launching its own investigation into what happened at the factory.