Secunda operations not halted, says Sasol
Sapa
Sasol has denied reports that operations had been halted at its Secunda plant where a worker died on yesterday.
`Sasol operations at Secunda have not been affected at all,` company spokesman Johann van Rheede said in Johannesburg today.
`Someone told the media that all Sasol facilities have been shut down, but it`s business as usual,`
Only part of the piping-fabrication shop, run by contractor Fluor and located on Sasol`s premises at Secunda, was not in use pending the outcome of an investigation.
`They`ve been told that they have to refrain from doing pressure-pipe testing until there`s been an investigation,` van Rheede said.
The Labour Department yesterday expressed `dismay` at the death, which brings to 11 the number of workers who have died at Sasol since the middle of last year.
The victim died in Fluor`s fabrication shop at Sasol`s Secunda plant in Mpumalanga.
This happened on the second day of an inquiry into a blast that left 10 dead and 360 injured during a maintenance drill at Sasol`s ethylene plant in Secunda in September last year.
The latest fatality is believed to have been the seventh major incident at Sasol since then. Preliminary investigations found that the worker died when a pipe collapsed on him `when the blank blew off` during pressure testing, the department said.
Fluor, an engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance company, said in a statement: `Emergency services were on the scene almost immediately, applied resuscitation and removed the injured man to the medical centre whereupon he was declared dead on arrival. Counselling has been arranged for the family and colleagues on the work site.`
Both Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana and Fluor expressed condolences to the man`s family.
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