Another building in PE harbour shut down following collapse

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Department of Labour officials have shut down an Eyethu Fisheries building in the Port Elizabeth harbour, adjacent to the facility which collapsed on Thursday night injuring 86 people, two of them seriously.

The Labour Department's chief provincial inspector Livingstone Matiwane says his officials were on the scene early this morning and took a decision to close the neighbouring Eyethu Fisheries building as a precautionary measure.

"This building is very similar to the one that collapsed and we felt we had to prohibit the usage of that building to avoid a repetition, until the company can give us some indication if they are building something safer"

Matiwane said the Labour Department's investigation into the building collapse shouldn't take longer than 14 days, because there've been no fatalities.

"The only thing that will be outstanding will be the report from the company itself, because we have put the ball back in their court to say that we need some further designs from their engineer as well as a risk assessment for the other building. If that is done and there are no difficulties in collecting the data it will not take longer than 2 weeks" he said