I was in Durban on Tuesday 24 June 2025 and established that another construction tragedy had occurred at leading to the death of an employee and hurting four others the day before. Apparently, Construction workers were working on a Scaffolding when the scaffolding gave way and collapsed causing working to fall from six meters. These workers went to work – they were not going to war where they risked life and limp. Dying on the job was not part of the deal. Leaving loved ones without a breadwinner was not part of their employment contract. Why kill workers? Who is going to act on behalf of these and ensure that there are repercussions for failing to ensure that they are safe at work? Subjecting people to conditions that are going to end their lives simply because they are poor and vulnerable is not only criminal but downright evil. The workers die and live go on. There will be tears and a death benefit and the business will go on. What happened to the notion that the health and safety of all stakeholders comes first long before we talk about profits and programmes?
FATAL CONSTRUCTION: One dead, four hurt in collapse at site in Durban – read the headline.
The Construction Regulations places a duty on the Principal Contractor to ensure the health and safety of construction workers and members of the public. The Principal Contractor has to provide and demonstrate to the client a suitable, sufficiently documented and coherent site specific health and safety plan, based on the client’s documented health and safety specifications contemplated in regulation 5(1)(b) of the Construction Regulations of 2014, which plan must be applied from the date of commencement of and for the duration of the construction work and which must be reviewed and updated by the principal contractor as work progresses.
Did the prescripts of the regulation happen?
Very often it is submitted as an excuse that a contractor is not able to fund the expenses associated with the provision of health and safety.
Construction Regulation7(c)(ii) states plainly that, on appointing any other contractor, to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act, ensure that potential contractors submitting tenders have made sufficient provision for health and safety measures during the construction.
Was this provision for health and safety done? If it was done, then what happened to the money that was allocated to save life and limb? Did they appoint a competent scaffolding erector? Did they pay a competent inspector to ensure that the scaffolding is safe? Scaffolding is not supposed to collapse. It is not supposed to kill people. Its role in the construction industry is to add to safety and not add to the risk.
It cannot be that the consequences of going to work are the same as those faced by a soldier going to war.
