Sparks Electrical News September 2015

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sparks
ELECTRICAL NEWS september 2015
6 contractors’ corner
A nightmare on Maxwell Drive
Getting to grips with SANS 10142–1 by Hannes Baard
SOUTH Africa is trash. If it was a contract, it
wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on. Being
employed in the electrical industry, it grates me
to not have a hot meal when I arrive home after
a long day’s slog. After all, I paid goodmoney
for the electrical installation and the mandatory
Certificate of Compliance.
I’m inmy bakkie, driving through the outskirts of
Sandton. I stop in front of an enormous complex
with an equally enormous totempole declaring this
complex as being ‘Megawatt Park’. I get out of my
bakkie; get intomy overalls; and donmy hard hat,
reflective vest and safety shoes. I dig inmy toolbox.
Out comes a pocket reference. I have a serious safety
moment and toolbox talkwithmyself. I identify
an emergency place of assembly and usemy shirt
sleeve to polish the fire extinguisher and green
cross decals on the canopywindow. I look around
to see if there are any immediate safety and health
risks – ah! Loud traffic! Out come the ear plugs…
everything goes silent. I walk over tomy bakkie…
not being able to hear properly, it feels as though
I’mdisconnected from the real world. I carefully
untie the ladder. I dig in the toolbox again and find
the latest small tool inspection certificate neatly in
a flipchart together withmy first aid certificate and
other relevant documents. I look around tomake
sure I’mnot going to knock someone unconscious
when I take the ladder from the regulation type roof
rack. I place the ladder up against the totempole
and secure it. I go back to the bakkie and returnwith
some funny kind of blue paint. I take the regulation
paintbrush and open the can of paint bearing a
SABSmark of approval. I cross out ‘Mega’ and insert
‘Milli’. The totempole now reads ‘Milliwatt Park’.
I stand back to admiremy handiwork…right in
front of a huge truck! I toss and turn… I fly…Ouch!
I fall right out of bed, onto the floor. Soaking
wet fromwhat has been a terrible nightmare…
I lie there and slowly it all comes back tome…A
sigh of relief passes my lips as I realise South Af-
rica is not trash. There is still good around andmy
electrical life is governed by a world class piece of
legislation, namely the Occupational Health and
Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993).
I get back into bed, comforted by the
thought of all the good around. If only the
people would appreciate it, behave like
professionals and not hooligans that ride
roughshod over everything legislative.
After all, laws are enacted by Parliament.
The Minister can get on with writing his
regulations that governmy daily life and
make it a little more structured…and
there are enough regulations, believe me.
Let’s have a look at what the Occupa-
tional Health and Safety Act (our own
world-class legislation) has to say about it
in Section 43.
43. Regulations.
(1) TheMinister maymake regulations –
(a) As to anymatter, which in terms of this
Act, shall or may be prescribed;
(b) Which, in the opinion of theMinister, are
necessary or expedient in the interests of the
health and safety of persons at work or the
health and safety of persons in connection
with the use of plant or machinery, or the
protection of persons other than persons
at work against risks to health and safety
arising fromor connectedwith the activities
of persons at work, including regulations as
to…
(c) As to the preventive and protectivemeas-
ures for major hazard installations with a
view to the protection of employees and the
public against the risk of major incidents;
(d) As to the registration of premises where
employees performanywork or where plant
or machinery is used and the fee payable to
the State in respect of such registration;
(e) Whereby provision ismade for the con-
tinuation of any registration under this Act;
(f) As to the registration of plant andma-
chinery and the fee payable to the State in
respect of such registration;
(g) As to the establishment of one or more
committees for the administration of a
provision of the regulations, the constitution
of such committees, the functions of such
committees, the procedure to be followed at
meetings of such committees, the allowanc-
es whichmay be paid tomembers of such
committees frommoney appropriated by
Parliament for such purpose and the person
bywhomsuch allowances shall be fixed;
Unfortunately this is all we have for now.
We will explore the rest of Section 43 a
little later.
Sleep with your eyes wide open until we
meet next time.