An investigation has been initiated after six workers died on Thursday morning in an accident at State-owned power utility Eskom’s Ingula pumped storage construction site, near Ladysmith, in KwaZulu-Natal.
The utility reported that a working platform in the incline high-pressure shaft, which connects the top dam to the powerhouse, failed, leaving six confirmed dead and several injured.
Fifteen people were working in the tunnel at the time.
No further details were immediately available, but Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba called on Eskom to leave no stone unturned in determining the cause of the incident and to ensure that any such possible accidents in future were averted.
Eskom planned to hold a media briefing on Friday to unpack details of the incident.
The first 333 MW unit of the Ingula pumped-storage scheme, located within the Little Drakensberg mountain range and comprising an upper dam and a lower dam, was expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2014, with the remainder of the units starting commercial operation later that same year.