Blasting at a building site near Mdantsane, East London, has been stopped after a hospital patient was killed by a flying rock, the Department of Labour said on Friday.
”The Department of Labour in the Eastern Cape has ordered an immediate halt to operations of a blasting company in East London,” said spokesperson Mokgadi Pela.
The woman was fatally wounded on Wednesday when a stone fell through the roof of the Nkqubela Tuberculosis hospital ward and hit her on the head. She was moved to the Cecilia Makiwane hospital, where she died.
The impact of the rock was so great, said Captain Mluleki Mbi, of the Eastern Cape police, that part of the roof collapsed.
A report by the department’s occupational health and safety inspectors shows that Blast East Cape, a company contracted to The Billion Group, was blasting rock not far from the hospital on the day of the accident.
”On Thursday, inspectors visited the area where they issued a notice prohibiting any further blasting,” said Pela.
Blast East Cape has been ordered to supply the department with a plan demonstrating how it will continue construction without endangering the lives of its workers and the public.
The company has also been asked to produce written permission to use explosives on the site, obtainable from the chief inspector of explosives.
According to explosives regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, said Pela, ”the employer is supposed to inform the provincial director of the department, not less than 24 hours before commencing with the use of explosives”.
Investigations are continuing and it was up to the director of prosecutions in Grahamstown to decide whether the company will be prosecuted, Pela said.
Eastern Cape police have opened an inquiry into the matter. — Sapa