Nxesi warns disasters are becoming 'new normal'
Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi says his department needs to be better prepared for disasters such as the deadly fire in the Johannesburg CBD.
Nxesi made the remarks at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) Summit in Midrand on Friday.
He delivered the opening address.
In July, a gas-related explosion on Lillian Ngoyi Street (formerly known as Bree Street) left one person dead and 48 others injured.
A few weeks later, disaster struck the inner city again when a fire engulfed an illegally occupied abandoned building.
At least 77 people were killed, and scores of others were injured.
At least one person was killed, and 48 others were injured after the explosion.
Nxesi warned that different types of disasters are becoming the new normal.
"As part of the Bree Street, now known as Lillian Ngoyi Street in Johannesburg, collapsed in the city and was left without services for many days as different parts of government sought to work out the cause and the appropriate response
"Whether these events are natural, man-made or climate-induced, which at some point was man-made, we have to accept them as part of our new normal. We need to plan better and be more prepared, and in my own department, it requires us to have new approaches to occupational health and safety as the scope of health and safety disasters increase.”
ALSO READ
