Msimanga instructs all Tshwane buildings be checked for compliance

Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga wants all City of Tshwane buildings checked for safety compliance.

The mayor said he had written to the city manager instructing him to immediately institute a comprehensive investigation and report on occupational health and safety standards and fire compliance.

Msimanga’s goal was to preserve lives, he said, as government buildings housed hundreds of people. He said the urgent request would ensure that buildings that were noncompliant would stop operating before another disaster happened, as was the case in Johannesburg last week.

“As a responsive government, we cannot continue with the status quo and allow partially compliant buildings to operate under our watch.

“We have noted and welcome the support of other institutions backing our decision to close down the Poyntons building, which knowingly continued to house over 1,000 employees in a noncompliant building that did not meet minimum fire safety requirements.”

He said both the department of labour and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union supported the city’s view that workers should report unsafe working conditions to the relevant authorities.

“The union Nehawu has filed for a declaratory order from the labour courts to protect the department of health public servants from working in dangerous conditions,” Msimanga added.