Fatal NRZ lift accident may be referred to court

By Tinomuda Chakanyuka

BULAWAYO – The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has said the elevator accident at NRZ headquarters in Bulawayo which claimed two lives at the beginning of last month may soon be referred to the courts of law after the completion of investigations.

NSSA acting director for occupational health and safety Mr Benjamin Mutetwa told Sunday News last week that investigations into the mishap were nearing completion.

He was, however, not at liberty to divulge the preliminary findings of the investigations, but said the matter may be brought to finality in the courts.

“As a matter of procedure I can’t give you much information now on our investigation, save to say the case may go to court soon after we complete our investigations. The courts will finalise the case.

“Our investigations are still ongoing and at the moment I can’t say much on what we have found out so far. I wouldn’t want to jeopardise the investigations,” he said.

Pressed to comment on who was likely to be prosecuted over the accident when the matter goes before the courts of law, Mr Mutetwa did not yield and referred further inquiry to NSSA’s corporate communications manager Mr Philemon Chereni.

Mr Chereni had, however, not responded to emailed questions at the time of going to print and his mobile phone was not reachable for the greater part of last week.

NRZ spokesperson Mr Fanuel Masikati said a committee had been set up to carry out an investigation into the accident with the outcome of the inquiry expected next week, over a month after the accident occurred.

“By next week the results will be out. There is committee that has been set to carry out the investigations. The committee is made up of NRZ and other Government bodies such as NSSA.

“We are just waiting for the investigations to be complete. As soon as the final report of the investigation comes out we will make it public,” he said.

Two people, a technician from Schindler Lifts and an NRZ female employee he was trying to rescue from a faulty elevator, died at the beginning of last month after they plunged down the elevator shaft, from the eighth floor of the NRZ headquarters in Bulawayo.

Mrs Elizabeth Mlangeni, an NRZ employee, got trapped inside an elevator on the eighth floor on Friday 3 July around 4pm as she was going to the ground floor after knocking off from work.

The technician, Mr Kevin Musina, who was sent to attend to the fault, is suspected to have tried to rescue Mrs Mlangeni through the trap door of the elevator car but was overpowered by the latter who was of heavy built, resulting in the two plunging to the basement, down the shaft.

Their bodies were only discovered 24 hours later by another technician from Schindler who was making a follow-up on Mr Musina.

The accident came just a few months after an elevator technician died and three others were injured after an elevator at Chaminuka Building in Harare broke loose and plunged from the ninth to the fourth floor.

According to NSSA, about 57 percent of elevators in buildings around the country that have been inspected are not working.

The statistics by NSSA come amid growing fears by members of the public in using elevators to go up high-rise buildings.

NSSA, which is mandated with assessing the safety of elevators, last month revealed that only 193 out of 453 elevators inspected this year were found to be working while the rest were grounded for various reasons.

A list of buildings with functioning elevators and those whose elevators were not working was not immediately available.

Inspections of elevators are carried out once every year, while owners of buildings are required to service elevators once every week for selected components and once every month for the entire plant.