Chief engineer aware of ongoing power problems
THE CHIEF engineer at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital had known for some time that there were problems with two cooling generators that failed to work during a power outage on Monday.
But he did not attend to them, and it was only when power went off on Monday that it was realised that there was a problem.
He was called to a meeting, and when he failed to give an explanation as to why he had not fixed the generators, Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu fired him.
“He was told to leave,” Health Department spokesman Steve Mabona said.
Power was restored to the hospital at 10.30am yesterday.
Mabona said that despite the fact that the man was an employee of the Department of Infrastructure Development (DID), he was stationed at the hospital, and the department had the right to relieve him of his duties.
“He will also not work at any of our hospitals. DID will have to see where they redeploy him,” Mabona said.
The hospital has five generators, and compressors power the generators in the event of a power outage, Mabona said.
There are also two cooling generators that work interchangeably during the power outage and they help the generators not to overheat while providing power.
Four months ago, it was found that one of the cooling generators did not have a valve, and despite the chief engineer being aware of that, it was not replaced, Mabona said.
During a routine test on Friday, it was found that another generator did not have a compressor.
Again, the engineer did nothing.
When a substation burnt down in Parktown on Monday, the hospital was plunged into darkness, along with the surrounding suburbs.
Generators had kicked in immediately after the power outage, but after an hour, the power failed when the generators gave in.
As the staff raced against time to save lives and transfer some patients to other hospitals, engineers were busy trying to identify the problem.
They found that the generators had overheated because none of the cooling systems were working.
“Technicians were there and had to bring a portable compressor and plug into the generator,” Mabona said.
The hospital was in the dark for between 30 and 40 minutes as technicians tried to locate the problem.
Mahlangu, who had rushed to the hospital following the incident on Monday, returned there yesterday to get a report on the situation. She said they had done all they could to save lives. No one had died because of the power outage and a further crisis had been averted.