Question NW1537 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
04 July 2017 - NW1537
Van Der Walt, Ms D to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Whether the foreman, superintendent, direct manager, director and/or municipal manager reported the incident that led to the death of a certain person (name and details furnished) while in the employ of the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality in Limpopo in accordance with the reporting line to the Department of Labour; if not, in each case, (a) why not, (b) will action be taken against any official for failing to report the death and (c) will the fatality be investigated; if so, what are the full relevant details in each case?
Reply:
The information was provided by the Municipal Manager of the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality (LM):
On 16 November 2016 an incident occurred whereby an official of the Greater Tzaneen LM was electrocuted and died whilst on duty. Three team members of the deceased witnessed the accident and immediately notified the office. An official of the OHS Office was the first to respond to the scene and followed due procedure to secure the scene of the accident. All relevant stakeholders were called on the scene, namely, Paramedics, the Police and Pathology.
(a) Not applicable.
(b) The case was reported to the Department of Labour by the first official to respond to the incident scene (Event No. 980065).
(c) The fatality was investigated internally and an incident investigation meeting was further held with the Director: Electrical Engineering Services, the Superintendent and the three officials who witnessed the incident.
A preliminary investigation meeting was held with an Inspector from the Department of Labour. The Municipality is currently waiting for the Department of Labour to conduct further investigations. Incident investigation is ongoing until the Department of Labour brings the matter to finality.