George building collapse victims likely to be repatriated by the weekend: DIRCO

GEORGE - The death toll from the George building collapse has climbed to 32.

This while 20 others are unaccounted for. Most of the artisans working on the site at the time of the collapse of the residential building were foreign nationals from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

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The Department of International Relations called on foreign missions' support with repatriating victims to their home countries.

Deputy Minister Alvin Botes said the repatriation effort is likely to be a multi-million-rand operation.
 
"The rescue and recovery for our team have indicated to us that the anticipate that by the end of the weekend they may have concluded the rescue and recovery efforts," he said adding that they would "then engage on the process of repatriation".

Meanwhile, disaster officers said language barriers hampered the psychosocial support offering to the affected families.

Botes renewed the call for trauma counsellors, psychologists, or clerics proficient in Chewa, Portuguese and Shona.

"Those professionals that are trained in psychosocial support to voluntarily provide their services to the families affected. So, the call is still there."