Building collapses expose systemic failures in SA’s construction sector, Macpherson says

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson briefs the media on the findings of investigations into four recent building and structural collapses.

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.”

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.