Daily Maverick reports that families and relatives of those injured or who perished in May 2024 when a five-storey development in George collapsed are ‘spitting snakes’ at claims that SA Police Service (SAPS) investigators had been ‘obstructive’.

Spokesperson for the George Building Collapse Victims’ Support Group, Muriel Hau-Yoon, lashed out at claims this week by Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya that Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) officials had been “bullied” by high-ranking police officers investigating the disaster. Hau-Yoon, who spoke on behalf of 62 people affected by the disaster, said “the SAPS investigating team went out of their way to assist traumatised survivors and families in identifying severely mutilated bodies” and added that those affected were “spitting snakes”.  Sibiya made the claims at a Thursday sitting of a joint parliamentary committee on Human Settlements and Public Works and Infrastructure.

Hau-Yoon went on to say that the SAPS team had “walked the extra mile and assisted victims with affidavits for their Labour claims when ham-handed Labour officials were sending victims from pillar to post”. Hau-Yoon claimed that the DEL’s “excuses” were because they had been unable to complete their investigation in 18 months. Sibiya also informed the committee that 53 of the workers on site were “illegal”. Hau-Yoon responded that, if so, “why did they not inform them from the get-go that they didn’t have a snowball’s chance of compensation? Instead, they’ve created false hope for the past 18 months.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Marianne Thamm at Daily Maverick
• Read too, George building collapse: Cops bullied inspectors, interfered in probe, labour department claims, at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)

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