George building collapse: Emergency officials testify at Western Cape Legislature
The Western Cape Legislature’s Standing Committee on Infrastructure was given a sobering and detailed account of the George building collapse during a live briefing on Friday.
The Garden Route District Municipality and the George Municipality reflected on the devastating event that claimed lives and injured many more.
The incident, which occurred just after 2pm on May 6, 2024, saw a multi-storey building under construction on Victoria Street collapse in what responders described as a rare “pancake collapse,” where floors fall directly atop one another.
Speaking at the briefing, Head of Disaster Management for the Garden Route District Municipality, Gerard Otto shared the agonising realities of the response operation, saying: “I don’t think anything fully prepares you for an incident like this. Having the plan just makes the gap less of what you didn’t plan for and what you’ve got planned.”
It took 260 hours, from 6 to 17 May, for rescue teams to comb through the rubble, searching for survivors among 62 confirmed victims, most of whom were foreign nationals.
“Only 16 of the deceased were South African citizens. The rest were Mozambican, Zimbabwean, Malawian, Lesotho nationals, some undocumented,” Otto revealed.
One of the most remarkable moments came 118 hours into the rescue, when survivor Gabriel Gumba was pulled from the rubble virtually unharmed.
“That lifted the spirit to say, ‘Okay, let’s carry on, let’s do even more,’” said Otto.
The response involved more than a thousand personnel and volunteers, including specialised rescue technicians, emergency medical teams, construction workers, and canine units.
However, the operation faced significant logistical and emotional challenges. Response equipment had to be transported from Worcester, resulting in delays of up to five hours for critical tools. Additionally, language barriers complicated the provision of psychosocial support for victims, while inaccurate or missing records from contractors made it nearly impossible to track the workers involved.
George Municipality Fire Chief Neels Barnard described the moment he reached the scene.
“Was it just a structural collapse of one wall? Or was it the whole building? It’s only when you reach the disaster site that you can see what has really happened. Even in the Western Cape, we have never experienced a tragedy of this scale before,” said Barnard.
Coordinated through a Multi-Agency Centre (MAC), the operation implemented triage colour-coding, acoustic detection devices, and forensic identification methods including tattoos and social media photos.
NGOs, churches, and the Department of Social Development offered support to grieving families and rescue workers alike.
“This was not just a government response, it was a whole-of-society approach,” Otto said.
Officials also credited past disaster experiences, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2017 Knysna fires, for helping establish functional cluster systems.
“Everyone knew their roles,” Otto added.
“That intergovernmental coordination saved lives.”
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