Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has called for farmers to ensure that better safety measures are in place after the work-related deaths of three farm workers over the past few days.
Two farm workers were allegedly run over by a trailer after falling off the back of another tractor-drawn trailer at a farm in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, while another farm worker died after becoming entangled in a mealie grinder at a farm in the Free State’s QwaQwa region on Friday.
Expressing his shock and dismay at the incidents, Mdladlana said the workers should not have died in such a horrific manner. He called on employers and employees to ensure that more safety measures were put in place in the workplace.
“The establishment of health and safety committees in workplaces to safeguard the interests of all the workers must be treated as an urgent priority”, said Mdladlana. He said his department would launch a full investigation to try to get to the bottom of the deaths.
“At a recently concluded evaluation and planning workshop, the top and senior management of the Department of Labour placed health and safety issues at the top of a list of immediate priorities and these accidents clearly give credence to our resolve,” the minister said. – I-Net Bridge