Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has warned that a string of deadly building collapses has exposed serious weaknesses in South Africa’s construction and regulatory system, including unlawful construction, weak enforcement, inadequate municipal oversight and failures in professional accountability.
Macpherson was speaking in Pretoria on Thursday as he released the findings of four investigations conducted by the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) into incidents in Verulam, Doornkop, Sea Point and Ormonde.
The four incidents claimed 17 lives and left 24 people injured between December 2025 and March 2026.
Macpherson said the investigations showed that the incidents were not identical, but revealed recurring weaknesses that could no longer be ignored.
“The investigations we are presenting today provide important evidence with which to assess that concern.
“We must respond to these incidents with more than expressions of sympathy. They demanded answers.”
Four incidents expose different failures
The most serious regulatory failures were identified at the River Range Ranch Temple site in Redcliffe, Verulam, where a five-storey building collapsed on December 12, killing five people and injuring 11.
The investigation found that the building had no approved building plans, no construction work permit and no identified built-environment professionals responsible for its design and supervision.
No complete structural drawings could be found and investigators were unable to conclusively establish a single technical cause of the collapse.
Macpherson said the building had effectively been constructed outside the formal regulatory system.
“The five-storey building had no approved building plans. There was no construction work permit. The Department of Employment and Labour had not been notified that construction had commenced,” he said.
The investigators described the Redcliffe collapse as “a case of ignoring the law”.
Macpherson said the finding should serve as a warning about the consequences of allowing major construction projects to proceed without regulatory oversight.
“A building of this scale should never be capable of progressing so far without the necessary approvals, professional oversight and regulatory visibility,” he said.
‘Not enforcing the law’
In Doornkop, Soweto, the investigation found that a residential structure collapsed after heavy rainfall on December 28, killing three members of one family.
The victims were a 60-year-old woman, her 24-year-old daughter and her one-year-old granddaughter. Three other people were injured.
Investigators found that the property was situated on high-risk dolomitic land, a danger the government had known of for decades.
Residents had previously been relocated from the area after the land was identified as unsafe, with compensation paid and demolition work started. However, part of the original structure remained and was later occupied by another family.
The investigation found that the most probable cause of the collapse was a shallow sinkhole or doline beneath the building, resulting in the loss of foundation support.
Macpherson said the incident exposed a failure to manage a known public safety risk.
“Identifying a danger is not enough,” he said.
“Once government knows that land or a structure poses a serious risk to life, that risk has to be actively managed until it is resolved.”
The investigators characterised Doornkop as “a case of not enforcing the law”.
Structural deficiencies
The third incident, at the Magnolia residential development in Sea Point, differed significantly from the fatal collapses.
On February 17, about 40 square metres of temporary formwork became unstable and failed, injuring four workers.
The investigation found that the permanent structure itself had not collapsed. Instead, temporary works failed after an incomplete and uninspected structure was prematurely loaded.
Unlike Redcliffe and Ormonde, the Magnolia development had complied with planning requirements and had the necessary professionals appointed.
Macpherson said the incident nevertheless demonstrated that compliance on paper was not enough.
“Compliance cannot simply exist in documentation. Every safety control has to operate at the point where work is actually being performed,” he said.
The most serious technical and professional concerns emerged from the Ormonde industrial building collapse in Johannesburg, where nine workers were killed and six injured on March 2.
The collapse occurred while concrete topping was being placed on suspended floors.
Engineers examining the surviving structure identified significant deficiencies in the structural steelwork supporting the floors, including concerns around connection details, structural members and the overall configuration.
Investigators concluded that the beams and columns supporting the affected slabs effectively had no capacity to carry the additional load being applied during construction.
‘A disaster waiting to happen’
The regulatory failures were equally concerning.
No application for building approval had been submitted to the City of Johannesburg before the collapse. An application was submitted only after the incident.
The investigation also raised concerns about professional engineering arrangements, including the involvement of an engineer who had previously been deregistered by the Engineering Council of South Africa.
Macpherson said these matters would require further investigation by the relevant professional bodies.
The investigators described Ormonde as “a disaster waiting to happen”.
“That is a severe conclusion,” Macpherson said, adding that the technical, regulatory and professional evidence explained why investigators had reached it.
Weak enforcement a major concern
Macpherson said the central problem across the four investigations was not that South Africa lacked construction legislation, but that the existing framework was not being consistently implemented.
“The principal problem identified by these investigations is inconsistent implementation, inadequate oversight, weak enforcement and non-compliance,” he said.
He also warned against treating building-plan approval as the end of regulatory oversight.
“Building control cannot stop when a plan receives a stamp,” Macpherson said.
Authorities needed to know when construction began, whether the work corresponded with approved plans, who had accepted professional responsibility, and whether inspection and certification systems were functioning.
Municipal capacity was also identified as a major concern, with the investigations pointing to shortages of qualified building-control personnel, limited inspection capacity and difficulties detecting construction that had never entered the approval system.
The reports recommend stronger information-sharing between municipalities, the Department of Employment and Labour, the National Home Builders Registration Council, professional councils and other regulators.
Macpherson said regulators often held different pieces of information about the same construction project, but those warning signs could be missed when information remained in separate systems.
The investigations also call for stronger sanctions against owners, developers, contractors and professionals who deliberately ignore statutory requirements.
“People cannot regard compliance with building legislation as optional because the financial consequences of breaking the law are less significant than the financial benefits of continuing construction,” Macpherson said.
“That balance has to change.”
Shembe Church wall collapse
The minister said the findings would now be referred to municipalities, professional councils, national departments and law-enforcement authorities where necessary.
He stressed, however, that the reports did not determine criminal or civil liability.
“These reports identify technical, regulatory, governance and professional failures. They do not determine criminal or civil liability,” he said.
“That responsibility ultimately rests with the appropriate investigative authorities, professional disciplinary processes and the courts.”
Macpherson also confirmed that the CBE is supporting the government’s response to the July collapse of a retaining wall at the Nazareth Baptist Church, also known as the Shembe Church, at eBuhleni in Inanda.
That investigation is at an early stage and does not form part of Thursday’s findings.
Macpherson said the latest investigations should ultimately lead to a stronger system capable of identifying risks before structures fail.
“Seventeen people died in the four incidents before us today. That number should remain at the centre of our response,” he said.
“If we are serious about turning South Africa into a construction site, then we must be equally serious about ensuring that South Africa becomes a safe construction site.”
He said the government’s response must focus on closing regulatory gaps, strengthening enforcement, improving professional accountability and ensuring known risks are not left unresolved.
“The workers who enter construction sites across South Africa every morning deserve a system which does everything reasonably possible to keep them safe,” Macpherson said.
wendy.dondolo.iol.co.za
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