Paarl Print probe extended

By Ofentse Mokae
13 March 2010

A month has been set aside to put on hold the public hearings in the Paarl Print incident.

Labour department says the presiding officer; Tibor Szana temporarily adjourned the hearings to convene again from 12 to 16 April 2010.

The department says Szana mentioned that the two weeks set aside for the public hearings into the Paarl Print incident proved not to be enough to get to the bottom of the story.

“The facts and evidence presented during these two weeks saw new names, whose testimony might be valuable to this inquiry, coming up and it only makes perfect sense for us to subpoena these individuals to appear before this enquiry”, Szana said.

The first phase of the inquiry saw fire forensic experts, building engineers and architects giving evidence from how the fire started to how the building was designed.

Employees of the company also had an opportunity to explain what exactly happened on the day of the fire.

The incident killed 13 employees last April leaving scores of others injured.

The department says the inquiry is held in terms of Section 32 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, No 85 of 1993.