By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A blast took place at the Rheinmetall Denel munitions facility between Strand and Macassar late on Sunday evening.
It’s not clear what caused the blast but it appears there were no fatalities as a result.
“The fire was contained to the N86 magazine building and was extinguished by internal fire department and the City of Cape Town’s fire services.”
Macassar ward councillor, Rhoda Ann Bazier, was one of the people who rushed to the scene.
“When we got to the gate, there were a lot of people standing there – the police, emergency services and so forth. There was an explosion inside but there were no fatalities.”
In 2018, an explosion at the Denel munitions facility killed 8 people.
Families of Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) explosion victims have demanded that the Department of Labour immediately suspend all explosive activity at the plant.
This comes after expert witness testimony given at the section 32 inquiry last week revealed that the “design of the building did not meet industry standards for explosive manufacturing, mixing and/or blending” at the time when the explosion occurred on September 3, 2018.
In the letter of demand, commissioned by Sam & Nicholas Attorneys, the families of the victims said: “On Friday, October 22 an expert witness commissioned by the Department of Employment and Labour testified at the formal inquiry into the Denel explosion of September 2018 that the design of the building did not meet industry standards for explosive manufacturing, mixing and/or blending. In addition the distance of the mixers/blenders are not adequate to stop and explosion from traverses or concrete walls. The concrete walls are also too thin to shield employees from fragments should an explosion occur again.
“We demand the Department of Employment and Labour to suspend the Explosive Licenses issued for Somerset West and review all Explosive Licenses issued to RDM by civil engineers with extensive experience designing and inspecting buildings for explosive manufacturing, mixing and/or blending.
“Failing which we will report the department to the Human Rights Commission or the Public Protector to determine maladministration and misconduct in awarding explosive licenses to RDM.”
The Labour department had appointed civil engineer Stephan Lapage to file a report which exposed “poor features of the traverses surrounding the (N16) facility”.
Lapage noted: “The walls did not offer any resistance to the effect of the explosion and the collapse of the wall allowed the blast to spread to the building space. At the same time, the blast carried lethal fragments as a consequence the building collapsed and fatalities occurred…
“The first and foremost lesson learned from the incident is that the mere presence of a concrete wall does not automatically translate into good protection. In fact, in the case of N16, the presence of two concrete walls gave a complete false sense of security,” Lapage noted in his report.