Johannesburg – The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) has described the George building collapse report as a “damning indictment of profit over people”.
The report, released on Saturday, 19 July 2025, revealed shoddy workmanship, the use of substandard cement, and a blatant disregard for worker safety.
A year after dangerous anomalies were pointed out, which included cracks in columns, strange vibrations in the slab, and even visible holes through walls in the basement, the building eventually caved in.
It was on 6 May 2024, when the building collapsed on top of construction workers, killing 34 and injuring 28 others.
The union, which said it “stands in profound grief and solidarity with the families, colleagues, and community devastated by the catastrophic collapse of the 75 Victoria Street building in George,” demanded several actions, including “criminal prosecution” of all responsible parties.
“The brutal, unnecessary deaths of 34 workers were not merely a tragedy, but the direct, predictable consequence of a capitalist system that prioritises profit maximisation above human life and dignity,” GIWUSA said.
“The findings of the Council for the Built Environment report confirm what workers experience daily; under the relentless drive for profit, safety is sacrificed, and corners are cut.
“Workers become disposable commodities in a construction of buildings that pose a threat to their lives and health, the safety of people who subsequently occupy and use them, as well as the public at large.”
GIWUSA said in the light of these damning findings it was demanding the following:
1. Justice for the Victims: Criminal prosecution of all responsible parties – site managers, suppliers, engineers, developers, and the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) inspectors.
End corporate impunity; jail those whose greed killed workers.
2. Full Reparations: Comprehensive support for victims’ families and injured workers, paid for by the companies and the compensation fund responsible.
The blood of 34 workers stains the hands of the profiteers and the complicit state.
3. Urgent Overhaul Rooted in Worker Protection, Not Profit by doing the following:
- Modernise the National Building Regulations to mandate safety, enforce verified competence, require digital risk monitoring, and facilitate worker-centered innovation – funded by taxes on corporate profits.
- Unified Worker-Oriented Enforcement: Create a single, powerful, worker representative Built Environment Regulator with prosecutorial teeth, dismantling the silos that serve capital.
- End Self-Assessment: Implement state-administered, rigorous competence verification for all critical roles. Funded training for workers and engineers.
- Digital Monitoring: Implement real-time, worker-accessible digital platforms for safety data, enabling proactive hazard identification and worker intervention.
4. Workers’ Control Over Safety: Mandate worker-elected site safety committees with immediate, binding stop-work authority.
Guarantee full union access to all safety data and reports.
5. Massive Public Investment in Skills: Funded by wealth taxes and corporate taxes, massively expand public technical education and continuous skills development for workers and professionals.
The union said: “George is not an anomaly; it is the brutal logic of capitalism laid bare”.
GIWUSA pledged a “relentless class struggle to dismantle this exploitative system.
“We will mobilise our members, unite with workers across sectors, and fight until workplaces are controlled by those who build them, and human life is valued infinitely more than corporate profit.
“The memory of the ‘George 34’ demands nothing less than systemic revolution.”
