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Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)

Regulations

General Machinery Regulations, 1988

4. Operation of machinery

 

(1) An employer or user of machinery shall ensure that every person authorised to operate machinery is fully aware of the dangers attached thereto and is conversant with the precautionary measures to be taken or observed to obviate such dangers.

 

(2) If a person operates any machinery which requires constant attention in order to avoid accidents, he shall under no circumstances leave his post while such machinery is in operation, unless he is relieved by a person who is authorised and competent to operate such machinery.

 

(3) An employer or user of machinery shall ensure that any machinery which requires constant attention in order to avoid accidents is under the supervision of a shiftsman, who shall at all times be present on the premises while such machinery is in operation, and no person shall attend to or operate such machinery, except under the general supervision of a shiftsman.

 

(4) No person supervising machinery and no person operating machinery shall, without the permission of his superior, authorize any other person to do his work.

 

(5) If machinery threatens or is likely to threaten the safety of persons when it is unexpectedly set in motion or made electrically alive, the employer or user of machinery concerned shall take all reasonable precautionary measures in order to ensure that such machinery cannot be so set in motion or made electrically alive, and any person intending to set such machinery in motion or make it electrically alive shall take all reasonable precautionary measures in order to ensure that the safety of a person is not threatened or likely to be threatened.

 

(6) If machinery in operation threatens or is likely to threaten the safety of persons, the person supervising or operating such machinery or the employer or user of machinery concerned shall stop such machinery or cause it to be stopped.