Department of Labour inspectors surveyed on Friday morning the wreckage of a bridge that collapsed at the Coega development zone outside Port Elizabeth and interviewed eight construction workers about the disaster.
Two construction workers were killed and 18 injured on Thursday when the bottom formwork of the bridge apparently collapsed under the weight of wet concrete being poured into the structure.
Workers on top of the structure fell about three storeys on to a pile of cement and metal.
Department of Labour spokesperson Snuki Zikalala said the inspectors were set to interview the designer of the bridge later on Friday and would also be meeting with the Coega Development Corporation.
Immediately after the incident, inspectors issued a prohibition notice against construction company Spesanutti and Bressan preventing any further work on the structure.
The department’s investigators on Friday morning also established that the company’s workers were registered with the Federated Employees Mutual Association and as such would have their hospital costs and the like covered. The company was also found to be in compliance with the Unemployment Insurance Fund Act.
Zikalala said the inspectors were working closely with police who were probing the deaths.
Coega Development Corporation spokesperson Vuyelwa Vika said only one worker was still in hospital on Friday morning, undergoing further observation. The others had already been discharged.
She added that the tragedy had not disrupted other construction work at the site of government’s latest industrial development show-piece.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, meanwhile, expressed its shock at the accident.
”We send our condolences to the families and friends of the two people killed and best wishes to the 18 injured for a speedy and complete recovery,” the labour federation said in a statement.
”Cosatu is concerned that the number of accidents at work, particularly in the construction industry, is unacceptably high, and totally endorses the Department of Labour spokesperson’s assurance that they ‘will not tolerate companies that put profits before safety of workers’.
”The Coega development has the potential to create many jobs and regenerate the Eastern Cape economy but this must not be at the expense of workers’ lives and safety,” Cosatu said.
Bridge collapses are rare in South Africa. The last high-profile tragedy was the collapse while under construction of the Injaka bridge near Bushbuckridge in July 1998. Six Concor employees and eight employees and partners of Van Niekerk Klein and Edwards Engineering (VKE) perished in that disaster.
A civil action was later brought against the designers of the bridge, VKE and the construction company, Concor Construction, both of whom were accused of negligence.
The Coega accident came two weeks after a Department of Labour blitz on the construction industry.
During a week-long inspection campaign 747 constructions sites were visited, of which only 37 were found to be fully compliant with occupational health and safety regulations.
As a result, 118 prohibition notices and 1 162 contravention notices were issued. — Sapa