Inspectors shut down Vereeniging labour centre, citing safety concerns

The Vereeniging labour centre was temporarily closed on Tuesday after an occupational health and safety (OHS) inspection identified maintenance and infrastructure defects that did not meet required safety standards and issued a prohibition notice for the facility.

The department of employment and labour said the closure came five days after a strategic operational pause enacted at its Soweto facility.

It said rather than viewing these consecutive notices as isolated setbacks, the department was treating them as an aggregated mandate to enforce absolute compliance.

“We are taking immediate, decisive ownership of our infrastructure footprint,” said Tshepo Mokomatsidi, the department’s chief director of Gauteng operations.

He said the department’s staff and the public deserved facilities that met every standard of safety and human dignity and that the department would not operate under a cloud of compromise.

A combined task team and contractors, through the department of public works and infrastructure, has already been deployed to the Vereeniging site to initiate immediate corrective works on the infrastructure defects flagged by the inspectors.

The facility will remain closed to the public until the inspectorate has re-examined the building, verified complete adherence to the OHS Act, and formally lifted the prohibition notice.

“The department unreservedly apologises for the cumulative inconvenience caused by these building closures,” the department said.

Vereeniging officials will for now adopt a hybrid working model.

Staff will work remotely and link with operational sister branches to ensure back-office applications, claims processing and general queries are managed seamlessly.

The department said clients in the Vaal region who require urgent face-to-face assistance are advised to redirect to the department’s closest operational service points.