Shortcuts, law-breaking behind Ormonde building collapse, says Council for the Built Environment

The Council for the Built Environment is calling for professionals to take a more active role in ensuring compliance with building regulations.

This was after another building collapsed, killing nine construction workers in Ormonde, south of Johannesburg.

Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson said it was the third building collapse in just three months.

RELATED: Macpherson says recurrence of collapsed buildings signals need for crisis management

The Department and the City of Johannesburg have failed to locate the contractors.

Msizi Myeza, CEO of the Council for the Built Environment, said many of these building collapses are due to contravention of laws and contractors taking shortcuts. 

“The nature of how the entire ecosystem is regulated, there are too many tiers in the system… We need to reorganise ourselves as a sector, come up with a regulation that will give us a single window of accountability because, right now, there are too many players and such issues are likely to happen.”

While the municipality faces a shortage of building control inspectors, Myeza emphasised the importance of registered professionals double-checking the construction site.

She also called on community members to report suspicious activity.

“Practitioners in the Built Environment cannot partake in such activities. In that particular development, there was a professional team, a contractor, and a developer, and all of them did not see the need to comply with the regulations,” Myeza said.

RELATED: City of Joburg to launch probe into Ormonde building collapse

To listen to Myeza in conversation with 702’s Bongani Bingwa, use the audio player below: