Following a number of fatal construction site accidents in the past 20 months, Master Builders Association (MBA) North has called for urgent measures to improve oversight and accountability in the construction sector.

The incidents include the George building collapse in which 34 people died in May 2024; the death of two people in a structural collapse in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, in March 2025; the collapse of a temple under construction in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, which left five people dead and several injured in December last year; and last month’s building collapse in Ormonde, Gauteng, in which nine people died and three were injured.

Newly elected MBA North president Gavin Morrow describes the situation as a crisis, noting that the recent spate of incidents confirms that the local construction industry requires systemic reform.

“These incidents reflect the state of the industry – it has been in decline for many years.

“Construction investment has dropped. There are now many more smaller and unregistered players competing in the sector, going in with razor-thin margins.

“When margins reduce, business owners start looking at cutting non-essential operational activities, and among the first things that get cut are quality, and health and safety. Many contractors view these as nice-to-have – not essential,” says Morrow.

“Construction companies should have quality departments and onsite quality controllers to design and monitor onsite method statements and quality checks,” he explains.

“As the project runs through its life cycle, there must be checks and balances: Has the concrete cured to the correct strength? Has the rebar been placed as per design and checked? Are the right materials being used?”

Some companies also do not place correctly skilled, competent, knowledgeable site agents on projects, as this level of experience costs more.

“Instead, they might put more junior people on site and hope the project gets through,” says Morrow.

“By having skilled, knowledgeable site agents and contractors onsite, the chances of potential design errors or oversight could be picked up, whereas inexperienced staff might not do so.”

Non-Compliant Builders
“Few serious incidents occur on projects by registered, compliant contractors and MBA members,” believes MBA North member and Tiber Construction MD Jose Correia.

Incidents are more likely to occur in instances where clients have opted for the lowest-cost contractors that are not registered with recognised industry bodies.

Correia notes that formal compliance requires certain systems to be in place, such as supervision and recurring training. Doing so, however, raises project costs.

“Many companies now operate in an unregulated environment. They are non-compliant, and this increases the risk of accidents resulting in fatalities,” says Correia.

“The moment reputable contractors submit documents to the Department of Labour indicating that they intend commencing works, that is the department’s ticket to audit you.

“But the sites that aren’t registering, aren’t inspected, so there’s no real way to regulate them unless there are feet on the ground that physically drive around and look for construction sites.”

Government Must Act
Morrow describes regulatory bodies such as the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) as “not very effective”.

These bodies have been tasked to conduct inspections and investigations and ensure compliance from a contractor perspective.

“You might register a project with the NHBRC and never see an inspector on site, yet their mandate is to check that things are being done properly,” says Morrow.

“Likewise, the labour department is not on site checking – not just whether undocumented foreign nationals are working on the site, but also that the project is compliant with health and safety regulations and that labour is being looked after.

“To address these challenges, Master Builders South Africa is busy putting together a dashboard action plan around what needs to be done now, and it is focused on putting pressure on bodies like the CIDB, NHBRC and the government to start acting,” adds Morrow.

“We need to acknowledge that the industry is in crisis and start behaving like it is in crisis.”

Morrow believes that government’s planned R1.07-trillion infrastructure investment programme could be a significant turning point for the sector.

“For the industry, it would be huge. It could push up margins, contractors could be a bit more selective with what they are prepared to price on, and they would be more open to paying for better-skilled staff to be on site.”