South Africa

Buried alive — 2024, the year one of SA’s biggest construction disasters blighted the landscape

A drone view of the site of the George building collapse on 7 May 2024. (Photo: Shafiek Tassiem / Reuters)

1 Jan 2025

This year the release of official reports about the George building collapse, one of the country’s biggest construction disasters, is bound to highlight concerns about the regulation of the industry and the application of standards prescribed by law.

On Monday, 6 May 2024, a five-storey block of luxury apartments nearing completion in George in the southern Cape slowly collapsed into a heap of deadly rubble.

Tons of cement, bricks and twisted steel from the 75 Victoria development buried alive 34 workers while injuring and maiming 28 others. Among those who perished were workers from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and Mozambique.

What is undoubtedly among the worst construction disasters in the history of South Africa served to highlight long-held concerns about the regulation of the industry and the application of standards prescribed by law.

The tragedy revealed how a complex web of companies – often with the same rotating directors and family members, as well as subcontractors linked to these projects – muddies the chain of accountability when a disaster of this magnitude takes place.

Read more: George building disaster — survivors ‘left to fend for themselves’ with ‘terrifying flashbacks’ and still no payout

Myriad investigations still under wraps

A drone view of the site of the George building collapse on 7 May 2024. (Photo: Shafiek Tassiem/ Reuters)

Various investigations have been conducted and concluded, with Western Cape Premier Alan Winde promising that these would be collated and tabled at the province’s next cabinet meeting in 2025.

A day after Winde received the report on 1 August, journalist Alida de Beer of the George Herald noted that three directors of Neo Victoria Developments, the developer of 75 Victoria, had resigned since the disaster.

These included Dylan Brockway and Alwyn Gey van Pittius, who both resigned on 13 May, a week after the collapse, and Johannes Swanepoel, who resigned on 18 June. The only remaining member of the group is Carel Swanepoel, according to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.

Read more: Shrouded in silence – key information on May 6 George building collapse still remains secret

Profit over professionalism

It is unfortunate that it took an event like the George tragedy to expose various potential cracks that officialdom and private developers might have papered over in an industry that is currently booming – with the low-hanging ripe fruit of profit over professionalism possibly too tempting to resist.

The fact that the construction site is located across the road from the George Municipality headquarters in Victoria Street adds further irony, especially considering – according to eyewitnesses – the amount of sludge constantly being pumped out of the basement during construction.

The development at 75 Victoria also exposed the use of desperate, undocumented foreigners as a source of cheap labour – all of this under the nose of the Department of Labour.

The disaster resulted in one of the largest rescue efforts undertaken in the region with nearly 700 emergency and disaster management officials and volunteers working tirelessly on the site in the grim days that followed.

Scars run deep

Survivors still live with the scars and wounds, and will do so for the rest of their lives. Such as Ivaldo Macamo, whose leg was crushed in the disaster and later amputated and whose future remains in limbo because he now has no job.

As Daniel Steyn of Ground Up revealed, many of the victims as well as survivors were employed by two subcontractors.

Neither responded to questions put by Steyn, but hopefully official investigators have made contact with the firm and its directors.

After the disaster the George Municipality raised R173,000, administered by a nonprofit organisation, to divide among families in distress.

Steyn reports that most survivors from neighbouring countries without documentation have been too afraid to identify themselves, which inevitably shuts them out of any formal system of recompensation. The names of all of those who died have not yet been released. Many are still noted as “missing”.

Read more: ‘I want my boy out of there’ — agonising vigil for families of those trapped in George building rubble

Engineer suspended

Two days after the collapse, Atholl Mitchell, the Paarl-based engineer who signed off on the plans for the project, was reported missing by the Pink Ladies on Facebook. He was located soon afterwards.

His behaviour raised concern, and police were rallied to search for Mitchell’s Suzuki Grand Vitara last seen near Philadelphia in the Malmesbury area. His condition had been described as “extremely vulnerable”.

Although not named, Mitchell was placed on precautionary suspension by the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) a month after the accident.

The council has since admitted to receiving two previous complaints about the engineer and his work, that these had been brought before an investigating committee and the decision had been taken not to proceed.

As with the medical fraternity, engineers are often reluctant to break ranks when asked to provide sworn statements regarding complaints.

Another complaint has been lodged against Mitchell about his conduct, which is still under investigation by the Ecsa’s Improper Conduct team.

The council has since ordered engineering reports on all projects related to Mitchell’s company, Mitchell & Associates, over the past three years.

Winde has vowed to “do everything in our power to ensure that those responsible for this unspeakable tragedy face the consequences of their negligence”.

Three investigations – from the provincial government, Department of Labour and the South African Police Services (SAPS) – have been completed.

Transparency

In July, George Municipality acting manager Dawie Adonis rejected an application by community newspaper publisher Group Editors for copies of the building plans to be made public.

The application was brought in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia).

In refusing to release documents relating to 75 Victoria development, Adonis referred to Section 36 of Paia claiming the plans contained “trade secrets and financial and commercial, scientific and technical information” which would cause harm to the financial interests of those implicated.

Those implicated however, according to Adonis’s boss, Winde, would face the consequences regardless of “trade secrets” or “technical information”.

In 2025, one of South Africa’s biggest construction disasters is bound to blow open a can of very nasty worms. DM

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