Johannesburg - In the past two years, close on 1 000 (969) people have died as a result of accidents in the workplace. This has emerged from figures released by the Department of Labour’s Compensation Fund.
The number of reported workplace injuries has increased, with the Compensation Fund paying out claims of more than R1 bilion to people injured at work. And in just the past three months alone, it has also made 47 burial payments amounting to R409 959.
Dikentsho Seabo, the Compensation Fund’s deputy director of communications, said between April 1, 2008 and March 31 this year, the department made 6 337 payments totalling R582 million for injuries that resulted in permanent disabilities. The highest payments made were R1.7m to a worker who suffered a serious knee injury and R540 000 for a head injury.
The department made a further 166 845 payments amounting to more than R520m for injuries that had led to temporary disability.
Department of Labour spokesman Mishack Megakwe did not want to be drawn into discussions on whether the money that has been paid out so far was excessive.
He said the biggest concern was that the figures showed that more accidents were taking place in the workplace than before.
Megakwe declined to apportion blame, saying experience showed that in most of the accidents, both employers and the employees were at fault.
This could either be as a result of employees disregarding safety measures that were in place, or individual employers not putting safety measures in place.
Construction, chemical and iron and steel industries were seen as the most dangerous in which to work, with more workers injured or dying there than in any other sectors.
The most common injuries noted were limbs being severed by machines.
Other reports were of chemicals exploding in workers’ faces causing burns. Some claimants had contracted lung diseases brought on by failure to wear protective masks while working, some were knocked down or injured by tractors and other heavy machinery.
Megakwe said the blame could be placed on workers for their own negligence in some instances, and in other cases, on companies for not putting adequate safety measures in place or ensuring that only qualified, experienced people were allowed to operate heavy machinery.
“The problem is that in cases of protests by workers, a company may decide to use less-experienced people to operate heavy machinery... In other instances, workers may tell themselves that they have been working in a particular field for a long time and don’t need to wear protective gear.
“Unbeknown to them, they inhale chemicals and dust which damages their lungs over time, or have chemicals blow in their faces,” Magakwe said.
For a 30-year-old worker who lost his lower arm after it was stuck in a machine, some employers don’t care about the safety of their clients and order them to do dangerous jobs.
His arm got stuck between the rollers of a machine he was cleaning, necessitating an amputation.
“Our bosses wanted us to clean the machines even though they were running with no regard for our safety. I will get R3 000 for the rest of my life, but this does not help because I was retrenched last year and trying to get another job with only one arm is not easy,” he said.
Three weeks ago six workers at Oricol Environmental Services in Kempton Park were injured during an explosion.
Four were later released from hospital but two are still being treated for burn injuries.
A few years ago an enquiry was established to determine events that led to the 10 people losing their lives and 30 others injured in a 2004 blast at a Sasol plant in Secunda.
Some of the major incidents in which workers were either killed or injured on duty:
January 2012
Two people die in an explosion at a factory in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
August 2010
A worker loses both his hands while working at a factory in Beaconvale in the Parow industrial area.
February 2011
Three men are injured in an electrical explosion in a factory at Harrismith, in the Free State. They were working on an electrical transformer when it exploded and they sustained burns.
August 2011
Five men are injured in an explosion at a wax factory in Alberton. One was seriously injured, sustaining burns to his torso, limbs and face.
January 2012
A worker is critically injured when a furnace explodes at a Germiston factory. It was believed that the item or substance that was placed in the furnace caused the explosion in which the man sustained serious burns on his face, chest and arms.
July 2012
A man contracted to paint a section of roof stands on a fibreglass panel that was unable to bear his weight, resulting it in him falling when it cracked. He falls on the factory floor below, landing on an empty drum and sustaining severe head trauma injuries.
June 2012
A 19-year-old man is found dead, in a kneeling position, at a brick factory in Vereeniging. It was believed that he was cleaning the machine when a part dislodged and fell on his head.
The Star