By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Rescuers said on Thursday, there was a glimmer of hope that more survivors could be found in the basement of a collapsed building in George, Western Cape days after it came crashing down.
The death toll on Thursday afternoon stood at eight. At least 44 other people were unaccounted for.
Employment and Labour minister Thulas Nxesi visited the site on Thursday and briefed the media. Nxesi confirmed that his department would conduct its own investigations into the incident.
The police will do their own work unhindered, but at some stage the police will hand over, once they are done with their work, to the Department of Employment and Labour, will be able to start with its own investigation.
Our investigation will be informed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, in particular section 31 and 32, of what is normal when we are faced with such incidents,” he told reporters.
The minister indicated that the Western Cape government would carry out an independent investigation as well.
He stressed that the disaster required various government departments to work in cooperation.
“It’s not a competition. We can’t play politics with the lives of the workers.”
Nxesi also cautioned against politicising and spreading fake news about the cause of the building’s collapse.
“There are a lot of rumours. We don’t want to speculate. We will leave everything to the investigations and once the investigations have been able to expose the facts, we will talk to that.”
“We have to put our differences aside and just work. We know that it’s election time… but now it is about the disaster which has affected the poor workers.”
The minister said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) would be roped in as some of the workers are believed to be Zimbabwean, Mozambican and Malawian nationals.
“We cannot communicate with some of the families in terms of language. We would need to talk to the various missions who are here in South Africa to send their people here.”
He hinted that the victims’ families would be compensated.
“We deal with that through Coida [Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act], but we can do that once everybody have been identified.”
Chief inspector at the department of labour in the Western Cape, David Esau, told the media the owner was yet to make contact with officials.
“We have, the day we arrived, tried to make contact with the owner of this premises,” Esau said.
“The address on our system, we went to that address and it was locked. We then proceeded to issue a subpoena and up until today [Thursday], there’s been no response from that particular person, so we will proceed with our legal processes,” he said.
“I’m hearing everywhere that he’s making contact with people through his attorneys – that’s not our business [because] he is obliged by law to make contact with the department of labour,” Esau said.
Theuns Kruger, Director of Liatel Developments, the contracted builder of the structure, said they’re trying to assist those on site of the five-storey residential building.
“The investigations to follow obviously will reveal what has transpired and what has happened, but at this point in time it’s just saving as many people as we possibly can,” Kruger said.
“The basement is largely intact… we do think that there could be people alive there,” Colin Deiner, head of rescue operations said.
“We will possibly consider staying in rescue mode for another little while,” he added.
Professor Richard Walls from Stellenbosch University’s structural engineering department, who was present at the site on Thursday, “We have more than 3000 tons of concrete. We are monitoring it carefully so it is not moving. This is far beyond search and rescue in terms of small equipment. Larger equipment is being brought in,” he said.
Deputy National Commissioner for policing and operations, Tebello Mosikili, said even though more than 72 hours had passed, rescuers were still hoping for survivors.