PHOTO: GARDEN ROUTE DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY
The owner of a George property where a deadly building collapse took place on Monday afternoon, on Thursday – more than 72 hours after the devastating tragedy – still appeared to have gone to ground.
The death toll on Thursday afternoon stood at eight. At least 44 other people were unaccounted for.
Chief inspector at the department of labour in the Western Cape, David Esau, told the media the owner was yet to make contact with officials.
“We have, the day we arrived, tried to make contact with the owner of this premises,” Esau said.
“The address on our system, we went to that address and it was locked. We then proceeded to issue a subpoena and up until today [Thursday], there’s been no response from that particular person, so we will proceed with our legal processes," he said.
“I’m hearing everywhere that he’s making contact with people through his attorneys – that’s not our business [because] he is obliged by law to make contact with the department of labour,” Esau said.
Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi cautioned the public to steer clear of rumours until such a time that the police have concluded their investigations.
“I want to emphasize what we cannot do at this stage,” the minister said.
“There’s a lot of rumours [and] we don’t want to speculate. Let’s leave everything to the investigators and then once the investigations have been concluded we will speak to that.”
Deputy National Commissioner for policing and operations, Tebello Mosikili, said even though more than 72 hours had passed, rescuers were still hoping for survivors.
