Contractors that allegedly continued working after receiving a notice of termination, have been blamed for an accident that left some children and possibly an adult injured at Delta Park School. Scaffolding collapsed at the school on 1 September. ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said that four children and one adult suffered minor to moderate injuries, while Netcare media liaison officer Chris Botha said that three children were seriously injured in the collapse, and another child suffered a seizure.
MEC of Education Panyaza Lesufi is scheduled to visit the school later on 2 September.
Ward 82 councillor Susan Stewart, who has been involved in the project since its commencement stated, “The Department [of Infrastructure Development] issued the contractors with a letter of termination on 6 July. The contractors continued working at their own risk.”
Delta Park School would not allow the press to take photos of the fallen scaffolding. The business manager at Delta Park School, Ronel Weideman, said that they were on “lock-down”, pending a media release. She also implied that the information relayed by the media was incorrect. She specifically referred to the number of people reported injured as being incorrect, but refused to say how many people were injured. She stated that there were no longer any workers on the site.
The principal architects had allegedly asked the contractors to stop working even before 6 July, owing to an ongoing criminal investigation involving one of the workers, Stewart said.
She said that she suspects that someone in the Department of Infrastructure Development had instructed the contractors to continue working while they “sort out the mess.”
