Pretoria- South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) expressed its condolences and called for an investigation after the death of an electrician at the JB Marks local municipality who was electrocuted while attending to an electrical fault in Ikageng on Wednesday
According to SAMWU, the electrical transformer exploded and burst into flames killing Reni Seroalo who was working on it.
The union urged the municipality to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the municipality.
“As SAMWU, we view this incident as an example of the dangers that municipal workers face on a daily basis, many workers leave their families in the morning not knowing if they will safely return to their beloved without any harm or alive.
“It is for this reason that we have been consistent as a union in calling for municipalities across the province to ensure that the health and safety of workers is guaranteed as per the prescripts of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said Vincent Diphoko, Provincial Secretary of SAMWU.
Diphoko said the union had also been calling for a danger allowance to be paid to workers who worked under dangerous conditions, and also advocating for proper maintenance of ageing municipal infrastructure in the province.
“We will therefore as a union be closely following the investigation of the cause of this incident, should it be found that the cause of the incident was as a result of the failure by the municipality to properly maintain their infrastructure, we will be holding the municipality liable for the death that has resulted in a family losing a bread winner,” Diphoko added.
IOL