A man died in an accident in an operation run by a contractor at Sasol’s Secunda plant in Mpumalanga on Tuesday morning.
The employee of a company called Fluor was working in the pipe-fabrication shop, said Mark Flower, Fluor’s marketing director.
No details of how the accident happened are available yet.
Flower said the fabrication facility is operated by Fluor within the boundaries of Sasol’s Secunda plant.
”We are responsible for the management, control and operation of the facility,” he said.
Fluor — an engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance company — has sent a management team to the site to investigate the accident.
Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi and Chemical, Energy, Paper, Print, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union general secretary Welile Nolingo also planned to visit the plant on Tuesday to speak to workers about the accident.
Sasol’s spokesperson Johann van Rheede confirmed the incident, but said it had nothing to do with Sasol’s operations.
Last month, Sasol’s chief executive, Pieter Cox, said the company was reviewing the safety of Sasol’s contractors.
Speaking to the media, Cox said contractors were involved in at least two safety-related incidents, at Secunda and the Natref refinery at Sasolburg in the Free State.
Ten people were killed and 360 injured at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda in September during a planned maintenance drill.
Two incidents were recorded at the Natref refinery in Sasolburg.
In the first, in October, a fuel spill caused a fire. In January, a gas leak caused a fire and although no injuries were recorded, 17 people were hospitalised as a precautionary measure. — Sapa