đź“· Photo: Ken Lund via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Commission of Inquiry into the December 2023 explosion at the quarry of Civil Construction Company Limited held its first public session on Monday at the Court of Appeal conference room at the Palais de Justice on Ile du Port, taking testimony from four witnesses including one who appeared online.
The three-member Commission, chaired by Justice Nicola Sharpe-Phiri with Ms Dora Zatte and Mr Guy Roucou as commissioners, was sworn in by President Patrick Herminie at State House on 31 March 2026. Justice Sharpe-Phiri said at the swearing-in that the panel has six months to deliver its report to the President.
Kathleena Govinden, a senior registration officer at the Registration Division, was the first witness. She confirmed that CCCL was legally incorporated on 1 October 1991 to operate a quarry, but told the Commission the company’s memorandum of association does not authorise activities involving explosives or detonators. That omission, she said, meant CCCL had no legal basis to purchase, import, store, sell, transport or use explosives for quarrying purposes. Her testimony raised direct questions about whether the company’s operations were consistent with its registered objectives and about the adequacy of regulatory oversight.
Raymonde Ernesta, also a senior registration officer in the Registration Division, followed. Norman Weber and Francis Chang-Leng, the latter participating online, completed the first day. CCCL, located in Petit Paris / Brillant, has not been charged in the criminal courts. The Commission has urged any member of the public with information to come forward, with submissions to be treated as strictly confidential.
The blast at the company’s Petit Paris quarry in the early hours of 7 December 2023 destroyed CCCL’s headquarters, damaged or destroyed a large number of houses in the surrounding Providence Industrial Estate, and forced evacuations across nearby communities. Then-President Wavel Ramkalawan declared a state of emergency in the immediate aftermath and ordered a national review of explosives storage standards. Government statistics cited in early 2024 put the damage at 531 houses, 354 privately owned and 177 managed by the state-owned Property Management Company, with the majority of businesses in the Providence Industrial Estate affected.
Recovery assistance has included a one-off payment of SCR 25,000 per household for repairs of damaged houses and up to SCR 1 million per house where demolition was required, with some households also receiving insurance payouts. Around 20 residents and business owners protested in mid-2024, arguing that CCCL had not yet been held legally accountable, and noted that the police inquiry report had been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office but would not be made public.
The Commission’s terms of reference, published in the Official Gazette, require it to investigate the causes and circumstances of the explosion, examine legal and regulatory compliance by CCCL and by relevant authorities, scrutinise the official response, consider potential liability and accountability, and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents. Contact channels for the Commission are open to the public by email and by phone in both English and Creole.
Sources cited: Seychelles Nation, “CCCL blast Commission of Inquiry urges public to share information,” April 2026; Seychelles Independent, “Three-member panel established to investigate CCCL explosion,” 2 April 2026; Construction Briefing, “Explosives held at Seychelles construction company lead to blast,” December 2023; Seychelles Official Gazette No. 22, 30 March 2026 (PDF).
Source: SN
