South Africa

George building collapse linked to regulatory lapses at building council, allowing contractor to ‘cut corners’

Minister Thembisile Simelane on September 05, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. This comes after allegations surfaced in the media that Minister Thembi Simelane, while she was Mayor of Polokwane Municipality in Limpopo, received at least R500 000 in a loan from an individual intimately linked to VBS Bank. (Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)

By Tamsin Metelerkamp

4 Apr 2025

Almost a year after the collapse of a five-storey residential property development in George caused the deaths of 34 people, Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane reported that failures in the internal processes of the National Home Builders Registration Council enabled the contractor to avoid following proper procedure.

The collapse of a five-storey residential property development in George in May 2024 has been linked to the failure of officials at the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) to ensure the project met mandatory requirements for registration and enrolment.

Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane presented a report by the NHBRC to the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on Friday, 4 April. She described it as a “very sad report” that showed glaring internal regulatory lapses at the council.

“It’s a report which indicates the failure of our systems at the NHBRC. […] There was a lapse of enrolment requirements which were overlooked by our internal staff at the council. […] There was a lapse […] with regard to the structural engineering and drawings and the details which were not fully disclosed as they should have been. […] We also had missing detailed material information with regard to the construction,” Simelane said.

“The contractor cut corners. Our system enabled him to cut corners by not following our standard operating procedures, and even approving without the fulfilment of all the necessary attachments that needed to be done.”

The NHBRC is a regulatory body of the home building industry, with a mandate to protect the interests of housing consumers and to ensure that builders comply with the prescribed building industry standards.

Read more: Six dead and 48 missing in devastating George building collapse

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

Read more: Engineer linked to George building collapse suspended by Engineering Council of SA

Regulatory lapses

building collapse george The multi-storey 75 Victoria development in George before its collapse in May 2024. (Photo: Supplied)

Minister of Human Settlements Thembisile Simelane (Photo: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images)

The collapse of the five-storey development, known as 75 Victoria, was followed by a days-long recovery effort. It resulted in 34 deaths, with 28 survivors.

The contractor for the development was Liatel Developments, under director Theuns Kruger.

The NHBRC report indicates that when the building was originally registered with the council, the plans were for a single-storey development, according to Simelane. However, at the stage of enrolling the building with the NHBRC, the building project was changed to a multi-storey development.

According to Simelane, officials at the NHBRC failed to undertake a proper technical assessment to ensure the contractor could manage the expanded scope of the project.

“At the municipal level and at NHBRC, the building was only listed on paper as a single-storey building, not a complex project, which is a multi-storey building. […] Ordinarily, to approve a one-storey building and a multi-storey building […] the intricacies are different, and the financials which need to be attached to a multi-storey are different,” she said.

“By registering a single-storey, Liatel confesses […] that was done because they did not have enough money to register.

“Then we had the […] enrolment procedure, which is a sectional title enrolment […] which was also processed by NHBRC. Now, on paper, it looks multi-storey, but the process of securing it was not proper.”

Simelane told the portfolio committee that two NHBRC officials failed to review the proper documentation and ensure compliance before signing off on the enrolment of the building project.

In the presentation shown to the committee, it was stated: “NHBRC should not have enrolled the units based on missing material information and they should have referred them back to the builder and the Home Builder Engineer. NHBRC’s internal control system and relevant staff should have reviewed and declined the enrolment.

“The project was a five-storey, hence it had to be reviewed by the NHBRC internal professional engineer and ensured that the structural design complied with the design codes SANS 10100-1 and it was not done.”

Another issue was that the enrolment of the building project with the council only took place after construction at the site had commenced.

“The commencement of the building started on the 3 July 2023, but the enrolment was completed eight to 15 days after the building commenced, which means there is a finding also against Mr Kruger of Liatel and our officials,” said Simelane.

Simelane said the report didn’t make any adverse findings when it came to the materials that were used in the construction of 75 Victoria, with indications that the materials used were “of quality”.

“The real cause of the collapse is articulated in the report as processes that were not followed in terms of the proper registration of the building, and to ensure that the structure of a single-storey to multiple storey […] desirably had the strength of carrying that building […]. That’s what literally would have then led into the collapse,” she said.

The NHBRC report recommended an improvement of the technical system used to approve buildings.

“This system has been flagged and it needs to be dealt with so that it locks, [and] your application can only go to phase two once phase one has been thoroughly compiled and verified,” said Simelane.

Disciplinary action

Three officials at the NHBRC who were implicated in the regulatory failures surrounding the George building collapse were referred for disciplinary action, according to Simelane.

However, when the then NHBRC board instructed its CEO Songezo Booi to place these individuals on precautionary suspension, he allegedly elected to place them on “special leave”.

Booi was subsequently suspended in November 2024 for “lacking urgency” in his handling of the George building collapse, and failing to follow the instructions of the board, according to Simelane.

The contractor Liatel Developments, as well as certain implicated NHBRC officials, have been referred to the South African Police Service for criminal investigation, she said. DM

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