Public Works Minister finally receives George building collapse report
Thirty-four construction workers died when a five-storey building collapsed, burying them under 6,000 tonnes of rubble on 6 May last year.
Rescue workers and sniffer dogs at the site of a collapsed building in George, Western Cape on 6 May 2024. Picture: Herman Pieters/Garden Route District Municipality
CAPE TOWN - Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson says he has received the final report from the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) into the tragic building collapse in George more than a year ago.
Thirty-four construction workers died when a five-storey building collapsed, burying them under 6,000 tonnes of rubble on 6 May last year.
Sixty-two workers were on site at the time, and 28 of them were pulled out from underneath the rubble alive.
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The report received by the minister investigated the conduct of the engineers on site, and what action should be taken against them.
Macpherson says the report marks a critical step in uncovering the truth behind this tragedy and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.
"We will now study that report to develop a pathway forward to ensure that tragedies such as this never happens again. As I've committed to previously, after studying this report, I will personally return to George to present the findings to the families. They deserve to hear directly from me and not through the media about what went wrong and how we can rectify it."