A year ago, on the 6th of May 2024, a building collapsed on Victoria Street in George, leaving the country and the construction sector searching for answers. The disaster highlighted the need for safety, skilled workers, and due process in the sector, without which leads to injury and loss of life.
The building collapse killed 34 of the 62 workers on site, with many others sustaining injuries. It took emergency services 260 hours to locate all the survivors. The disaster sparked an investigation into the business responsible for the building, Neo Victoria Developments. The Human Settlements Minister, Thembi Simelane, delivered interim findings in a report in April 2025. The findings accused Neo Victoria of engaging in serious cost-cutting practices that amounted to gross negligence. By-passing regulatory compliance costs the lives of many workers and puts the community and potential residents at risk. The report revealed a flagrant disregard for the regulatory standards set by the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC). The response to this disaster was overwhelming, with charities such as Gift of the Givers and other volunteer groups helping emergency services find and aid the injured.A year later
On the anniversary, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, visited the town to speak to the survivors, the families of the deceased, and the volunteer organisations who helped during the search and rescue. Macpherson says, “There is no excuse for a five-storey residential building collapsing during construction in 2024—not in South Africa, not anywhere.” The minister highlights that this disaster is man-made, and thus justice and answers are needed if South Africa is to move forward from this. Among the key solutions Minister Macpherson highlights, “transparency and accountability”, and explains, “ this cannot be optional when human tragedy takes place at the hands of humans, and must take place for the system that failed these workers.”The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure also state that their in-depth report, one collaborated on by the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) and its body, the Engineering Council of South Africa, will be out by the end of May.
Obstacles to resolution
The minister also highlights some of the obstacles that the sector faces, such as a lack of collaboration for oversight, stating that because of the siloed approach, cracks emerge. He also highlighted that migrant workers are frequently exploited by those in the sector who wish to dodge compliance and that it is in the interest of public safety that migrant workers share the same level of documentation and protection as South African workers.
Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure Dean Macpherson meeting with the Gift of the Givers in George, one year after the fatal construction disaster.