Minister for Public Works and Infrastructure Dean McPherson has expressed frustration after a tragic structural collapse at an illegal construction site in Verulam claimed four lives on Saturday.
The collapse occurred Friday at the four-story structure of the New Ahobilam Conservation Temple at River Range Ranch in Red Cliffs.
“I’m tired of hearing about people dying from building collapses,” he said after visiting the site of the tragedy on Saturday, pledging a swift and comprehensive review of the country’s building compliance regulations to end the current fragmentation that allows such disasters to occur.
“My impression is that more people have died. There’s no way people should die on a construction site,” McPherson told reporters as search and rescue operations entered their second day.
“Buildings are supposed to stand tall and be monuments to engineering excellence. This is clearly the opposite. So I’m tired of hearing about people dying from building collapses,” McPherson said.
The collapse initially trapped numerous construction workers. Five people were successfully rescued hours after the incident, and a further eight were treated for mild to moderate injuries, but the grueling task of extracting the dead continues.
Mr McPherson confirmed four deaths, and searches are still underway for those who may have been trapped.
eThekwini Municipality confirmed that the structure was illegal, saying preliminary reports showed there were no approved plans for the four-storey building.
According to reports, the temple’s founder Vic Pandey is also believed to be among those trapped under the rubble, but his identity has not been officially confirmed by authorities.
Mr McPherson was accompanied during his visit by KZN Cogta MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi and eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba.
The minister noted that the scale of the collapse was significant. After visiting the site, he said: “It was shocking to see the amount of steel and concrete at the site and the efforts of the team to rescue those trapped under the rubble.”
The rescue operation is being led by a multidisciplinary team, including forces from eThekwini Search and Rescue, SAPS Search and Rescue, KZN and the National Disaster Management Center, as well as the Western Cape Search and Rescue Team, which brought in two dogs with extensive experience in last year’s George Building collapse.
Mr McPherson stressed that the immediate focus remained on rescue operations and that the department was refusing to speculate on the cause of the collapse at this stage.
but he admitted that Built Environment Council is set to Lead a formal investigation once the rescue phase is completepoints out that experts are already on the scene.
Beyond the immediate crisis, McPherson used this opportunity to address systemic failures in the built environment. He pointed to a departmental report that made a number of recommendations for changes to laws and regulations.
“Fragmentation is one of the biggest problems we see in the built environment, where local governments, building regulators and utilities each operate under different sets of regulations,” he explained. “There’s no synergy or common purpose in these regulations, and I think it’s absolutely important that we need to address that as soon as possible.”
He advocated for utilities and infrastructure to play a central role in standardizing compliance across the country.
“We have to work hard to end that fragmentation, because within the fragmentation there are gaps and that’s where people can seize opportunities,” he said. The Minister pledged that his Department is committed to expediting the legislative process to achieve this change.
He drew a clear contrast between the construction industry and the mining sector when it comes to safety.
“The construction industry needs to catch up with safety and a zero-tolerance approach to injury and death in the mining industry,” Mr McPherson argued. “We are working in conditions as dangerous as the mining industry, and the safety, compliance and regulatory standards do not appear to be in place.”
MEC Buthelezi appealed to distraught families to be patient with rescue teams.
“We have the hope that if there is a chance that someone is still alive, we must expend every effort and energy to rescue that person,” he said, pledging that rescue teams would remain at the scene until the next day.
Mayor Shaba, who met with families earlier in the day, stressed the need for patience.
He noted that the scene had been handed over to rescue teams, while an investigation had begun in the “periphery.”
He called on mayors and MECs to “go on the offensive” to ensure incidents like this, which have fueled non-compliance and regulatory gaps, “never happen again”.
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