The debris after a building under construction collapsed in George. (Photo: Stamhoof Brendon Torob Adams / Facebook) 
As rescue efforts at the collapsed construction site enter their second day, 48 people remain trapped under the rubble. Authorities have yet to identify the developers responsible for the site.
Rescue teams are in a race against time to retrieve as many trapped workers as possible from beneath the rubble.
As of 12pm on Tuesday, six of the 27 patients removed from the collapsed building had been declared deceased, while another 48 people who were present at the time of the collapse remained unaccounted for.
Relatives and loved ones of the trapped workers were escorted to a waiting room at the civic centre, where they received psychosocial support services. As the rescue drags on, fear and uncertainty fill their every moment.
George mayor Leon van Wyk said he did not know the developers, engineers and contractors responsible for the site, despite his office being across the road from where the tragic incident happened. “Unfortunately, I don’t know those names at this stage,” he told a Daily Maverick reporter.
“I think we need to establish [the names] from the Department of Labour. I personally do not know.”
Municipal manager Dr Michele Gratz agreed with the mayor, adding the current focus of the authorities was on rescuing the trapped workers.
Van Wyk and Gratz were addressing a press briefing on Tuesday alongside Western Cape Premier Alan Winde; Anton Bredell, Western Cape MEC of Local Government and Environmental Affairs; Colin Deiner, chief director of the provincial Disaster Management Services; and Memory Booysen, executive mayor of Garden Route District Municipality.
“What I also have put in place through the director general… [is] already getting an investigation going. We have to make sure that while [the rescue] is happening we have got specialist engineers on site because we have to find out why this happened and how it happened. Of course, obviously the building goes through planning processes at the municipality level, and all those processes obviously were being followed, but… we have to find out exactly why a building like this collapses,” said Winde.
“We have to make sure that no stone will be left unturned.”
Rescue effort
Various rescue teams are involved in the operation in George, including teams from the City of Cape Town, Breedevallei tech rescue, Search and Rescue South Africa (Sarza), the South African Police Service and nonprofit Gift of the Givers. There are currently about 111 professionals on site, according to Winde.
Speaking on yesterday’s rescue efforts, Deiner said, “We were actually hearing people shouting through the rubble, so that was the first point. And then the dogs come in and the dogs do a verification. Once the dogs have verified that there’s somebody, we have high-tech equipment that we can actually start triangulating and pinpointing where someone is trapped.”
Deiner explained that the international standard for the length of this type of rescue effort is three days. “In other words, we treat everybody as still alive and we try and rescue everybody, so that’s what we’ve been doing.
“We’ll make a call after three days [of] where we stand… We’re going to give the absolute maximum time to see how many people we can rescue.”
The rescuers are currently in contact with 11 people beneath the rubble, including four who are trapped in a basement area. Deiner estimated that it would take most of the day to rescue the people trapped in the basement.
Later in the day, the rescue teams will start a process of “delayering”, he continued. “That would mean that we would then start lifting the different floors off each other, and the reason we do that is that there’s a possibility that people could still be alive…”
Community support
As the rescue teams diligently worked through the rubble, community members continued to show their support by bringing an abundance of snacks and refreshments, generously sharing words of encouragement and offering heartfelt prayers for the safety and well-being of those involved in the rescue operation.
Update from Monday
Workers are being freed from a collapsed building in George with help from emergency services from as far as Worcester and the Gift of the Givers.
Emergency services and police at the site, trying to free trapped workers. (Photo: Supplied)
This building under construction collapsed in George, Western Cape, trapping workers. (Photo: Supplied)
This is the building that collapsed in George, Western Cape. (Photo: Supplied)
Dust billows after the building collapsed. (Photo: Stamhoof Brendon Torob Adams / Facebook)
Just before 2.30pm on Monday, 6 May, the multi-storey building collapsed at 75 Victoria Street. Emergency services have been on scene, trying to rescue trapped workers.
Gift of the Givers teams have been dispatched to the building, which was under construction. The building is privately owned.
The scene after this building under construction collapsed in George, Western Cape. (Photo: Supplied)
The debris after a building under construction collapsed in George, Western Cape. Emergency services are at the site, trying to free trapped workers. (Photo: Stamhoof Brendon Torob Adams / Facebook)
The Western Cape provincial government said Premier Alan Winde and his MECs were being briefed on the incident. “All the necessary support has been offered to emergency personnel to expedite their response. At the moment, officials are focused on saving lives. This is our top priority at this stage,” said Winde.
The province sent personnel and emergency response support to assist with operations.
According to a George municipality update last night, 53 emergency personnel were on their way from the City of Cape Town and Worcester Disaster Services. Chief Director of Western Cape Disaster Services Colin Deiner will be on site as soon as possible.
Gift of the Givers’ representative in the Southern Cape Mario Ferreira told Daily Maverick the mood at the scene was “very sombre”. There had been some communication between rescue officials and those still trapped. The humanitarian organisations’ sniffer dogs were headed to the scene to help with operations.
Supplies
George municipality said police, ambulance services and staff from the Garden Route District Municipality were at the scene, which involved ‘multiple’ patients. The municipality has said people wishing to provide supplies such as drinking water, energy drinks and food could deliver, via Ivy Street, at 79 Victoria Street, Delplan Consulting. A municipal worker would be there to collect donations.
The DA’s constituency head in George, MP Mimmy Gondwe, said: “The DA in George would like to thank the emergency personnel for their swift response to this tragic incident and will keep monitoring the situation with a view to offering any form of assistance and support.” DM
This article was updated at 1.30pm on 7 May 2024.