Death house 'not legit'

Construction on the house that collapsed in Meyersdal, southern Johannesburg - killing seven people - was illegal, preliminary investigations show.

Yesterday, emergency services in Korhaan crescent, in the Meyersdal Eco Estate, ended their search and rescue operation and handed the disaster scene over to the police and Department of Labour to begin the criminal investigation.

But even as the investigation begins irregularities in the renovation of the double-storey house have emerged.

The Ekurhuleni city planning and development department said it had no record of plans submitted for the alterations, and the Department of Labour was not notified construction was to take place.

The Ekurhuleni Emergency Management Services was able to work its way through all the rubble.

Sniffer dogs, according to EMS spokesman William Ntladi, had earlier yesterday picked up the scent of two bodies but this had turned out to be bloodied clothing on site.

A spokesman for the Ekurhuleni municipality, Themba Radebe, said there was no record of plans submitted for the recent work on the house.

"We have a plan for when the house was built in 2006 and an occupancy certificate was approved in 2009," said Radebe.

According to the Department of Labour, there was no notification that construction work was to begin on the property.

"They need to notify us seven days before commencement of work," said department spokesman Thobile Lamati.

He identified one of the contractors as Romicon Construction. Attempts to contact the company yesterday were unsuccessful.

Lamati said a prohibition order was served on the owner of the house, Gregory Paul Cumming, to stop all work on the site.

On Monday, Ntladi said rescue personnel were unclear how many people were on the site when the building collapsed. He said there was a second contractor at the building site, but it could not be contacted to establish how many workers were working on the building.

Investigators from the Department of Labour had not found files that listed who was on site, a standard practice, said Lamati.

Illegal construction work was contributing to the deaths of on average 104 workers a year (two a week), he said.