📷 Photo: Patrick Joubert/Seychelles News Agency via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Four former workers at Civil Construction Company Limited (CCCL) told a public inquiry in Victoria yesterday that explosives at the company’s quarry had been handled and stored in ways that flouted basic safety practice, and that police oversight of the site had been thin for years before the December 7, 2023 blast.
The hearing, held at the Court of Appeal conference room at the Palais de Justice on Île du Port, was the latest sitting of the Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the explosion, which injured workers and drew fresh attention to how Seychelles regulates commercial blasting.
Tony Aglae, a police officer with the Public Order and Tactical Response Unit (POTRU), told the commission that he had held one set of keys covering both perimeter gates and all four explosive containers at the CCCL site. He said unused materials were normally returned to the containers after each blast and recounted, but he added that he had not been assigned to CCCL for a long period before the explosion. He was at home in Petit Paris at the time and was among those injured.
James Matombe, a former senior police officer and explosives expert, said that during his service police officers had not been trained in handling explosives, except for himself and two others. Officers were briefed only on the names and types of explosives they might encounter at CCCL, and there were no protocols within the police force for monitoring explosives held by commercial operators.
Around 2009, during a visit to CCCL, Matombe said, he saw two properly fenced containers and recommended barbed wire for additional security, a suggestion later implemented. The materials inside were well stacked, he said, and he raised no concerns about operations. Retired by the time of the explosion, he offered no opinion on its cause.
David Plows, a licensed underwater explosive blaster, rejected claims that sabotage from gunshots had caused the explosion, noting that detonators can sound like gunfire when they go off. He suggested that a rat may have destabilised a box of detonators, triggering the blast, and alleged that military grade explosives, including high powered blasting cables, may have been stored in the container, intensifying the explosion.
Plows stressed that explosives deteriorate quickly in humid conditions, with detonators highly sensitive to heat and friction. He said he had purchased substandard or expired explosives from CCCL in the past at reduced prices, with his last visit in 2019. After the incident he filed a statement offering his expertise, but was never contacted, and later learned his statement had been mislaid.
Mervin Austin, quality control manager at United Concrete Products Seychelles (UCPS), told the commission that the Explosives Act requires all storage magazines to be licensed. Drawing on his expertise, he was approached by police around 2003 to conduct background checks on commercial blasters, because the force lacked qualified personnel. He said he had trained five individuals to become competent mine blasters and called for the Explosives Act to be updated to address gaps in safe storage, training, inventory management and licensing. Austin noted that CCCL’s explosive containers had faced the main road for decades.
Austin joined UCPS as quarry master in October 1996 and moved to CCCL in July 1999 as master blaster, overseeing mining operations until July 2008. He confirmed he was never questioned by police following the explosion.
The inquiry continues.
Sources cited: 1. Wikipedia, “Victoria, Seychelles”,
Source: SN
