Hopes are fading for 44 workers still missing days after South Africa building collapse; 9 are dead

GERALD IMRAY
Fri, May 10, 2024 






South Africa Building Collapse
Rescue personnel search the site of a building collapse in George, South Africa, Thursday, May 9, 2024. Rescue teams searching for dozens of construction workers missing after a multi-story apartment complex collapsed in the coastal city have not brought out more survivors in the past 24 hours. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Hope was fading Friday for 44 construction workers buried for days in the rubble of a building that collapsed in South Africa, with authorities saying rescuers are now faced with the challenge of moving thousands of tons of concrete with heavy machinery to see if there are any more survivors.

The death toll rose to nine after a worker who was in critical condition died in the hospital, authorities said.

Of the 28 workers rescued from the site, 21 were in critical condition or had life-threatening injuries following Monday's collapse of the five-story apartment complex that was under construction.

With fears that the final death toll could exceed 50, authorities in the city of George on South Africa's south coast said large earth-moving equipment had arrived and rescue teams were removing huge slabs of concrete and rubble to reach deeper into the wreckage.

City authorities said it was still a rescue rather than a recovery operation, but no survivors have been located or brought out since Wednesday.

“Despite the introduction of large machinery, rescue techniques will still be applied meticulously and sensitively by the highly skilled and experienced disaster management team,” the city said in a statement.

It also revised the number of missing from 38 to 44 after determining that there were more construction workers at the site than previously thought. New information provided by the construction company showed there were 81 workers when the building came crashing down, not 75 as authorities had initially announced, it said.

More than 600 personnel are involved in the rescue operation, with many brought in from nearby towns and cities. George, which is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town, is a small city known as a vacation and golfing destination.

Authorities say multiple investigations are underway into the cause of the collapse, including by police, the provincial government and the national department of labor.

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Hope fades for 44 trapped in collapsed South African building

Reuters
Updated Thu, May 9, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: Rescuers work to rescue construction workers trapped under a building that collapsed in George


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Relatives of 44 construction workers trapped under a collapsed building in the South African city of George faced a fourth day of anguished waiting on Thursday as heavy machinery worked at the site in a race against time to find any survivors.

Of 81 people who were on site when the five-storey private residential building collapsed on Monday, eight have been confirmed dead and 29 alive, 16 of them in a critical condition, according to the latest figures from George municipality.

"A number of families... (are) waiting, not knowing what has happened with their children, with their husbands, their uncles," Thulas Nxesi, South Africa's employment and labour minister, told reporters on site.


Nxesi said the government would conduct its own investigation. The cause of the collapse is yet to be established.

"We still hope and pray that we can get people out alive," Anton Bredell, a Western Cape provincial minister, said.

The identities of the missing have not been made public, but a list of names was circulating among groups of relatives who have congregated at the site since Monday, desperate for news of their loved ones, state broadcaster SABC reported.

An earth mover could be seen removing broken slabs of concrete from the collapsed building, now a chaotic pile of masonry and twisted steel reinforcements. Sniffer dogs had been brought in to search the site.

The incident has prompted an outpouring of solidarity in George, with local companies providing equipment and volunteers setting up coffee stalls for waiting relatives and rescue workers.

Nearly 700 people were involved in rescue efforts on Wednesday.

Rescue teams had been hearing trapped survivors, a disaster management official said on Tuesday, but there have been no further updates about that since then.

(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Estelle Shirbon, Andrew Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Survivor recounts moment he emerged from deadly South African building collapse

Shafiek Tassiem and Esa Alexander
Wed, May 8, 2024 






Survivor recounts moment he emerged from deadly South African building collapse
Rescuers work to rescue construction workers trapped under a building that collapsed in George

By Shafiek Tassiem and Esa Alexander

GEORGE, South Africa (Reuters) - Moses Malala, a 34-year-old construction worker who escaped the wreckage of a five-storey building in George, South Africa, recalled the moment it collapsed and a cloud of dust engulfed him, as rescue efforts continued at the site 48 hours on.

Seventy-five construction workers, including Malala, were on site when the building crumbled on Monday. Thirty-six have been retrieved so far, including seven deceased, while 39 remain unaccounted for.

Malala survived with only minor injuries but said he is scarred by the death of a co-worker and unable to sleep.

"I see the dust coming up. Starting from the basement it's coming up... then I'm starting to see the slab is cracking, sliding to go down," he recalled.

"Every night I can't sleep," Malala said, adding he is thinking of the co-worker nearest to him who passed away. He has been returning to the site "to check our guys".

Local authorities in the city east of Cape Town said on Tuesday that the rescue teams were in contact with some survivors buried beneath the structure. Teams searched the site with sniffer dogs.

It is not yet clear how the building collapsed. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for an investigation.

Alan Winde, premier for the Western Cape province, said more than 200 emergency service personnel were involved in the rescue on Wednesday.

"I cannot express the emotions I felt yesterday when the site would suddenly go completely quiet in the hope that our teams might be close to locating another survivor," Winde said.

Rescuers were met with applause when they pulled survivors from the debris, riddled with broken concrete slabs and twisted steel reinforcements.

Edna Nissi waited for an update on her brother Charles Thangalimodzi, who is believed to still be under the rubble.

"From Monday we didn't hear anything that he is out. We heard this morning that he is still down," she said.

Friends and relatives of the other workers gathered at the site and sang, joined by local reverend Siyanda Sijila, who said the community had not experienced an event like this before.

"We only see these things happening somewhere else but now it's happened to us," Sijila said.

(Reporting by Shafiek Tassiem and Esa Alexander in George, Writing by Tannur Anders and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)