Major Hazard Installation (MHI) is a serious hazard, if there is a slight noncompliance, that can lead to a major incident and a lot of lives are going to be lost.

Edward Khambule, the Chief Director of Provincial Operations, opened the MHI roadshow, Durban event: Provincial Operations, KwaZulu Natal, “This auspicious event marks the beginning of a dialogue between the regulator and the stakeholders, to protect the lives of our citizens from the effects of major hazard installations incidents"

The MHI Roadshow or Workshop was held in Durban today (31 October 2023).

The roadshow aimed to introduce the newly Promulgated Major Hazard Installation Regulations, 2022 and also to promote and raise awareness of these new Regulations.

The Major Hazard Installation Regulations was promulgated on 13 November 2022, by the Minister of Employment and Labour, T.W. Nxesi, and published on 31 January 2023 and application was announced on 17 May 2023. As such the MHI Regulations, 2001 have been repealed and are no longer applicable.

“The purpose of this is to ensure that the employees as well as the public members are protected from the MHI incidents which include fire, toxic emissions, as well as confined explosions," said Rachel Aphane, Specialist MHI, Department of Employment and Labour. 

The Department of Employment and Labour is “making sure that all these MHIs are designed and built for purpose; they are not located in areas where the public will be unnecessarily exposed to incidents; there are emergency plans in place; the integrity of the installations is ensured; they are in good condition and are all operated in a proper manner".

On the current regulations, Aphane said the Department now has 26 Regulations as opposed to 11 regulations, which have been phased out.

“The reason why there was a need for a review of the 2001 regulations was the gaps, which were identified and included the lack of guidance in terms of approvals of these installations by Local Government.

“The old regulations had no prescribed quantities and so the current ones do have quantities and we quantify what the Major Hazard Installation is and the definitions that make it easy for the implementation as well as the installation to understand what needs to be done and what is relevant," said Aphane.

Aphane said it is no longer relevant whether the installation is temporary or permanent, as every installation that has prescribed quantities is an MHI, adding that with the old regulation, there was no formal registration and there was a lack of accountability on MHIs.

She said the notifications for any MHI will have to go to the Municipality first before going to the Department of Employment and Labour.

“Regulation number four, which used to be regulation number three in the old regulations, still talks about notification. The only thing that we changed there is that you have to notify the Department, Local Government as well as the Provincial Department within ninety days, which is ninety days before you even start the project. This is after the sixty-day notification under the 2001 regulation which has been repealed.

The MHI that are already existing and that were regulated under the 2001 regulations have 24 months to transition into the new requirement. The 24 months has already started counting from 01 February 2023 and to end on 01 January 2025," she said.

Aphane told the attendees that MHIs are also required to be advertised in the newspapers locally before the new installations can be built and the advertisements must be in English and the most common local language of the location every five years or whenever there is a change within the MHIs.

In addition, objections to the installations need to be submitted to the Department as well as the Local Government.

“The registration is what we are going to take away if you are not a responsible operator and operators are required to comply.

“We need to ensure that there is full compliance. This is not to scare you, but this is just a collaboration that we have put into the regulation to say we want to work with you closely to make sure that you comply 100 per cent with the requirements. Because Major Hazard Installation is a serious incident. If there is a noncompliance that can lead to a major incident and a lot of lives are going to be lost," she warned. 

For media enquiries, please contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694/ Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za

-ENDS-

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour​

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