An inquiry into the cause of an explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, last month — which left 10 people dead and more than 100 injured — began on Wednesday, the Department of Labour said.
Spokesperson Page Boikanyo said 40 witnesses, including workers and subcontractors, will be questioned during the inquiry, which is due to end on Friday. It is being held at the petrochemical company’s Brandspruit mine near Secunda.
Solidarity spokesperson Chris Pienaar said the explosion, which occurred during maintenance work on the C2 ethylene pipe on September 1, had been caused by a gas leak when the pipe was opened, causing a gas cloud that ignited.
He said the investigation will focus on finding the source of the flame that ignited the gas, as well as why there had been gas in the pipe in the first place, since it was supposed to have been switched off.
Although the inquiry is scheduled to end on Friday, Pienaar said he expects the probe to continue into November due to the formal and technical nature of the process, with a large number of documents having to be presented.
A report will then be handed to the national public prosecutor for a decision on whether those responsible should be prosecuted.
Also present at the inquiry are friends and families of the deceased.
”We will get to the bottom of this,” said Pienaar, adding that too many of Solidarity’s members are dying.
Pienaar said his union has requested Sasol to conduct a safety audit of its operations.
”In spite of the fact that some of the company’s plants are ageing, the number of days set aside for maintenance has been reduced,” he said.
He also said the union is concerned over the ”excessive trimming” of the maintenance budget and a reduction in the size of the teams operating the plants.
Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) secretary general Welile Nolingo said representatives from his union, the Department of Labour, Sasol and Solidarity are in attendance.
Ceppwawu said it will make its own submissions to Sasol to ”stop the killing of innocent workers”. This will include that refineries be compelled to shut down their plants during maintenance work. — Sapa