THE Labour department in North West expressed concern on Moses Kotane local municipality’s municipal manager who allegedly failed to uphold safety regulations for employees.

Regional Labour spokesperson, Orpa Mathabe said that the department had to take the municipal manager to court to compel him to adhere to occupational and safety rules.

“We want to urge all government departments to make sure the interests of the employees are taken seriously. We have realised that most government institutions are not conducive.

“The Mogwase Magistrate Court issued a warrant of arrest for the Moses Kotane municipal manager pending his failure to appear on the next court date. However we are still waiting for the correct date from court, but the matter will be heard in July,” she said.

The municipal manager failed to appear before the magistrate at a court session between the department of labour and the Moses Kotane local municipality two weeks ago.

Mathabe said the reason there are not even more accidents and diseases caused by work is because systems of prevention are in place which have been built up over generations.

“Safety does not come about by accident. Most accidents happen because they have not been prevented. Yet despite all the precautions some employers decided to ignore that.

“Millions of rands can be saved in avoiding risks and ignorance regarding safety measures at workplace. Our objective is to minimise injuries at workplace.  Attention to health and safety is not just about being socially responsible. It also makes good business sense and you should regard it as just as important as the achievement of any other key business objectives.

Statutory services officer at the department, Jeff Lethoko indicated that the municipality totally ignored almost all sections of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act.

“The municipality ignores house-keeping issues to those of serious contraventions. They also even failed to provide workers with toilet paper and hand soaps as stipulated on the Facilities Regulation 2(3) (a and d) of the  Act.

“Labour inspectors established that workers working at sewage plants were not taken for medical surveillance. The municipality also did not have a risk assessment plan to follow in determining if any worker might have been exposed to Hazardous Biological Agents (HBA) as required by regulation clause 6 and 8 of the HBA. Male and female workers were found to be using the same changing rooms and that Health and Safety Reps were not trained,” Lehoko said.
However Moses Kotane local municipality spokesperson, Beauty Makganye said the municipal manager had sent an indication that he was not well.

“We are still waiting for the court date and we will update you regarding the court outcomes,” Makganye said.

-TDN

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