Production of stock feed had to stop at a Gaborone company after one of the employees fell into the grinding machine while feeding grain into the grinders.
Naledi Police Station commander, Superintendent Titus Molathlwa, told The Telegraph this week that his station is investigating the death of a middle-aged man who allegedly fell into the grinding machine.
He explained that last Friday night police were called to Techno Feeds after receiving information that an employee had accidentally fallen into the machine and had been killed.
“We are told that usually employees use hands to feed the machine,” he said, adding that preliminary reports say he was, instead, using a bag.
Unfortunately, the bag allegedly got stuck in the machine, twirled around his arms and pulled him into the grinding mill while it was still running.
A colleague, who realized that someone had fallen into the machine, ran to switch off the machine.
“The machine had to be dismantled to make it easy for the body parts of the deceased to be recovered,” said Molathlwa, adding that the man’s head was crushed.
“We have to establish a number of issues that need to be clarified, like whether or not the deceased could have been pushed into the machine.”
He added that some stakeholders, like the Labour Department, had to be brought in to address the issue of safety and determine whether or not the company is complying with industrial safety standards. Molathlwa said the name of the deceased is still being withheld until next of kin are informed.
“I am not sure when we will complete our investigation because investigations just started on Monday,” he said.
A Techno Feeds official had promised to comment before we went to press but was later not available.
Meanwhile, Molathlwa said the police are appealing to members of the public to identify the body of a man aged between 20 and 25 who was knocked down by a north-bound goods train on Wednesday last week.
He said so far the information that they got from an eye witness alleges that the deceased ran onto the railway line and sat between the rail tracks and the train ran over him. The goods train was only stopped after it reached Mahalapye.
Molathlwa added that the train crew told the police that they did not notice that they had knocked down a person.
“I am appealing to members of the public to visit the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone to identify the deceased person,” Molathlwa said.
