Survivor recounts moment he emerged from George building collapse

Moses Malala, a 34-year-old construction worker who escaped the wreckage of a multistorey building in George in the Western Cape, recalls the moment it collapsed and a cloud of dust engulfed him, as rescue efforts continue at the site.

Seventy-five construction workers, including Malala, were on site when the building crumbled on Monday. Thirty-seven have been retrieved so far, including eight deceased, while 38 remain unaccounted for.

Malala survived with only minor injuries but said he is scarred by the death of a co-worker and unable to sleep.

“I see the dust coming up. Starting from the basement it's coming up ... then I'm starting to see the slab is cracking, sliding to go down,” he recalled.

“Every night I can't sleep,” Malala said, adding he is thinking of the co-worker nearest to him who died. He has been returning to the site “to check our guys”.

Local authorities said on Tuesday the rescue teams were in contact with some survivors buried beneath the structure. Teams searched the site with sniffer dogs.

It is not yet clear how the building collapsed. President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for an investigation.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde said more than 200 emergency service personnel were involved in the rescue on Wednesday. “I cannot express the emotions I felt yesterday when the site would suddenly go completely quiet in the hope that our teams might be close to locating another survivor,” he said.

Rescuers were met with applause when they pulled survivors from the debris, riddled with broken concrete slabs and twisted steel reinforcements.

Edna Nissi waited for an update on her brother Charles Thangalimodzi, who is believed to still be under the rubble.

“From Monday we didn't hear anything that he is out. We heard this morning that he is still down,” she said.

Friends and relatives of the other workers gathered at the site and sang, joined by local reverend Siyanda Sijila, who said the community had not experienced an event like this before.

“We only see these things happening somewhere else but now it's happened to us,” Sijila said. 

On Wednesday night, the George municipality said: “The rescue efforts are ongoing overnight. The emergency response team is implementing more substantive concrete breakers and additional trucks to remove building rubble from the site to free the remaining entrapped patients.”

Reuters