Trade union Solidarity said on Friday that a lack of cooperation was causing unnecessary delays in the investigation into last September’s explosion at oil and chemicals group Sasol’s Secunda plant.
The explosion killed 10 people and injured more than 300 others. The investigation started in October 2004 and will probably not be completed this week, Solidarity said.
Solidarity’s spokesperson for the chemical industry, Marius Croucamp, said on Friday that the delays were regrettable.
“Solidarity is concerned that there seems to be no cooperative effort to disclose the truth. Witnesses who exercise their right to remain silent delay the process, because other witnesses then have to be called. Information is not offered voluntarily, which means that the inquiry goes ahead in dribs and drabs. Solidarity will continue to do all in its power to ensure that the truth comes out so that steps may be taken to improve safety at Sasol,” he said.
Testimony delivered during the past week had raised a number of questions about the safety management system at the time of the explosion, the trade union said.
Problematical permit systems and practices, as well as inadequate risk assessment, were among the problem areas identified at the time of the shutdown.
The current session comes to an end on Friday, but expectations are that the inquiry will not have been completed, Solidarity said.
Sasol spokesperson Johann van Rheede has said that the group would wait for the final outcome of the investigation as well as the findings that would be made by the Department of Labour before commenting further on the matter. – I-Net Bridge