George tragedy: Shocking claims emerge

“It was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Shocking claims have emerged from a senior municipal official regarding this week’s building collapse tragedy in George, which has so far claimed at least eight lives.

According to the source, who asked not to be named, the basement of the five-storey building “had not been reinforced with concrete and had consisted predominantly of dirt”.

The basement had also been very wet during the casting of the pillars’ bases, the source claimed.

He alleged that the building’s cellar had not been provided with a cement floor.

“So the bottom of the building was still dirt.”

He said the basement was briefly pumped dry from the water that had seeped into it.

“The floor of the cellar was therefore always filled with water which was pumped out regularly.”

The source said the constant pumping out of the water on the cement bases of the pillars that stood in the clay was severe.

“The water that came out was orange brown — the colour of the clay in which the sockets were cast,” he said.

“Every second, third, fourth day there was a stream of water being pumped out of that building.

“It was clay water every week for the whole time now that water came out of the basement. 

“The basement did not have a concrete floor. 

“The foundation of that building was clay.”

He said the other concern was the speed at which the building had gone up.

“It took them eight weeks to get where they were at the time of the collapse.”

It is understood the land is currently owned by Neo Victoria Developments Pty Ltd, with development co-ordination and management supervised by Neotrend Developments Pty Ltd & East Africa Development Pty Ltd.

Liatel Developments Pty Ltd oversaw construction, while Mitchell & Associates served as structural and civil engineers.

Deon van der Westhuizen Architects cc acted as the project architect, with Mitchell & Associates as the principal agent.

Matla Quantity Surveyors Pty Ltd handled quantity surveying, and health and safety officer duties were managed by 4Front Safety and Security Consultants Pty Ltd.

Clinkscales Maughan-Brown Pty Ltd was responsible for electrical engineering, and Duane Hodges Consulting Engineer oversaw fire engineering.

Given a right to reply to the source’s allegations telephonically, Liatel director Theuns Kruger refused to comment.

The reporter then put the allegations to Kruger via WhatsApp.

He responded: “As I have stated, we cannot comment at this stage.”

When contacted, Van der Westhuizen also declined to comment.

On Thursday, the rescue efforts persisted amid a backdrop of waning hope among the families of 44 people still unaccounted for while officials maintained an air of optimism as the day unfolded in scorching heat.

First responders toiled tirelessly as they worked to remove rubble and scour for survivors amid the debris.

The scene was a hive of activity, with new rescue equipment being trucked in.

Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi said though most victims were foreign nationals this was irrelevant at this stage.

“At this stage it’s not about whether they are foreign nationals or not.

“It is about human rights,” Nxesi said.

Nxesi said all departments had decided to be non-political in their approach to the matter.

“All government departments and the different spheres of government will be allowed to do their own investigations, but we are going to do so co-operatively,” he said.

“We have to support each other.

“It is not a competition and we cannot play politics with the lives of the workers.”

Meanwhile, labour department inspectors raided a contractor’s site office earlier this week and removed files with employee records.

The files, about three folders, were later returned, which is how disaster management officials and the building contractor could confirm the number of workers that were on site.

This is according to Wouter Kriel, spokesperson for Western Cape local government MEC Anton Bredell.

The figure rose from 75 to 81 on Thursday morning.

In 2021, the developers applied to the George municipality to rezone the land from business use to residential use.

In documents from the town planner to the council, seen by The Herald, it is stated that the application was to relax the building lines of the erf to develop flats over four storeys.

This was, according to the documents, to allow for more space for carports, to increase the floor area ratio and increase the height of the building from 15m to 17.34m to allow for a roof garden and open space area on the rooftop, among other things.

In the motivation to the council, the town planner wrote that there was a need for more housing opportunities within close proximity to work and other social and economic amenities.

He said the development supported the densification in strategic areas and optimised the use of existing and underused land in the CBD area.

A host of requirements were needed by the municipality, including that a site development plan for the roof garden be submitted and that a stormwater management plan as well as building plan be submitted for approval in accordance with the National Building Regulations after approval of the site development plan.

The developer had to adhere to the requirements of the Environmental Authorisation.

The council approved the application on October 1 2021.

The deputy national commissioner for policing and operations, Tebello Mosikili, said that despite more than 72 hours having passed, rescuers remained hopeful of pulling out survivors.

Kriel echoed Mosikili’s sentiments.

“The rescue workers will continue to search for people,” Kriel said. 

“We’re bringing in big machines to remove the rubble.

“The pockets where we say there might still be people alive are lower down, so we need to access them and for that we need to get the machines that you will associate with the recovery process.

“We have still not lost hope yet. 

“We are still searching for people.” 

However, families whose loved ones were still trapped said they were struggling to maintain their fighting spirit.

Among them were Patrick Maseko, 32, and Martha Shawa, 35, who were waiting to hear any news regarding their loved one, Tiwonge Mgango.

“We don’t know what is going on, but we just pray and we just want to find out if she’s alive,” Maseko said.

“We just want clarity and closure.

“We want to see her and we want to see her now.”

Esther Ngwinga is among the 81 people who were working on site.

Her sisters, Maria Msiswa and Lacher Bwinge, have since had to take care of her one-year-old baby girl and have slowly lost hope of seeing Ngwinga again. 

“We’ve been here since Monday praying she is saved,” Bwinge said.

“We are tired and exhausted but can’t leave here without getting news of our sister.” 

 SACP district general secretary Langa Langa said they extended their heartfelt condolences to the families.

“It seems like someone wants to hide some information from us,” he said at the scene on Thursday.

“We can’t have information that is hidden from the public, such as the approval of the plans and what the land was zoned for.

“We also feel that the company was exploiting our people.

“There are many foreign nationals working on the project, some of whom we know have lost their lives and others who are trapped.”

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