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PRESS RELEASE - 8th June 2001
groundWork calls for a Commission of Enquiry into
worker and community safety in the SA oil refinery industry
In the past ten days, two workers have
died during separate accidents at the ENGEN (South Durban) and NATREF
(Sasolburg) refineries.
Yesterday a worker lost
his life when he was burnt to death and another injured in an explosion
at the NATREF plant. On Monday 28 May a worker was instantly killed
and another critically injured when he was exposed to hydroflouric acid
in an accident at the ENGEN plant in South Durban. All of these
workers were contract workers and thus are not employed directly by the
refinery companies.
groundWork, an environmental
justice organisation working with communities in South Durban and Sasolburg
on pollution issues, is seriously disturbed by both these accidents and
resultant deaths at these SA oil refineries.
“Workers face the highest
risk in working in these plants. Not only are they exposed to high levels
of occupational pollution, they are also the first line of injury when
there are accidents in these plants,” says Bobby Peek, Director of groundWork.
“groundWork is particularly
concerned that the workers killed and injured in these two recent incidents
were not in the direct or permanent employ of the refinery companies.
Therefore, the companies can distance themselves from the accident and
the liability,” Peek said.
The Sasol group for the
1999-2000 year had 9 fatalities and 1163 injuries in over 230 incidents
(Sasol SHE Report, 2000).
groundWork calls
on the SA government to convene a Commission of Enquiry into the:
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Worker and community safety
of the oil, coal and gas refinery plants in South Africa
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Labour practices of the
oil refinery industry in South Africa
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Liability of senior refinery
managers in the deaths and injury of people on the refinery plants
A local Sasolburg resident,
Mvuse Maguma called on the Sasolburg community and other communities adjacent
to the refineries to support groundWork’s call for a commission
of enquiry. “We live next to these refineries, what happens there
affects us,” says Maguma.
groundWork is concerned
by worker safety and is in communication with Unions on this issue.
One injury is too much,
and one death should be treated with the full weight of the law!
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