At least four people have since been discharged, while one person is expected to undergo surgery on Tuesday.
Minister Dean Macpherson has visited the church.
He says the department is awaiting information from the eThekwini Municipality on the building’s plans and approvals before specialists assess the site.
“It’s our understanding that a platform was being built for what you see around. On the issue of plans, permissions … those are issues we have to deal with in relation to the municipality, as they are the custodians of that part. And I think the question illustrates the problem that we have is that we have various spheres of government involved in the different parts of value chains in the built environment, which we are ultimately, are the custodians for. Now, we should be able to have a line of sight about that. In a perfect world, I should be able to give you an answer, but because it is fragmented and segmented, I’m not able to do so.”
Meanwhile, the Nazareth Baptist Church says it is launching its own investigation into the cause of the collapse. The church’s Reverend Mbongwa Nzama says hopefully the findings will help prevent similar incidents in the future.
“We want to thank everyone who has managed to come here, and it is going to be important for everyone that is here to report what exactly happened because when I was in Joburg last night I was told a lot of stories, that’s why I had to drive down here. But when I got here, I now have somehow a story. At the moment, we do not know what exactly happened. Like I said, we are going to institute our own investigation so that we know what happened.”
Today, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, accompanied by Council for the Built Environment (CBE) CEO Dr Msizi Myeza, conducted a site visit to the Nazareth Baptist Church in eBuhleni Village, Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, following Monday’s wall collapse that… pic.twitter.com/vkZ4ZAnUyi
— Department Of Public Works and Infrastructure (@DepartmentPWI) July 14, 2026
VIDEO | Emergency Services say workers were trapped 45 metres into the surface after a wall collapse:
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