A PetroSA employee was killed when he fell 10 metres at a gas-to-liquid (GTL) refinery in Mossel Bay on Saturday, the parastatal said.

The 45-year-old man fell during a planned maintenance operation.

“At PetroSA strict adherence to safety is sacrosanct and we therefore wish to quickly get to the bottom of how this incident happened, to ensuring we prevent such occurrences in future,” acting group chief executive officer Mapula Modipa said in a statement on Sunday.

“The man’s family had been informed and were getting support and counselling from the company.”

Police were investigating the incident.

All other authorities, including the Inspector of Mines and the Department of Labour, were also being informed and an investigation into the incident would start on Monday.

Modipa sent PetroSA’s condolences to the man’s family.