Govt to subpoena owner of collapsed George building

Authorities said they have been trying to get hold of the owner of the unfinished structure without success. 

Monday's disaster has killed at least eight workers, 29 injured and 44 others unaccounted for.

Western Cape Occupational Health Safety Inspector David Esau says they will proceed with legal action.

"Today we tried to contact the client, we went to the address and it was locked. We then proceeded to issue a subpoena. And up until today, there has been no response, so we will proceed with our legal processes."

Meanwhile, Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said his department will launch its own investigation into the tragedy.

“The police will do their own work unhindered, but at some stage the police will hand over, once they are done with their work, to the Department of Employment and Labour, which will be able to start with its own investigation.

“Our investigation will be informed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, of what is normal when we are faced with such incident."

Nxesi also called on the public to stop speculating on the cause of the disaster.

“There are a lot of rumours. We don’t want to speculate. We will leave everything to the investigations and once the investigations have been able to expose the facts, we will talk to that.

“We have to put our differences aside and just work. We know that it’s election time but now it is about the disaster which has affected the poor workers.”

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