On the afternoon of 6 May 2024 a residential block under construction at 75 Victoria Street, George, collapsed onto the workers inside it. Thirty-four died; twenty-eight were injured. It was the deadliest building failure in democratic South Africa.
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure commissioned a forensic investigation through the Council for the Built Environment and received the final report on 2 June 2025. Released with the Engineering Council's findings on 20 July 2025, it recorded that floor-slab concrete tested at 13 MPa against a specification of 19–25 MPa, that geotechnical work was inadequate, that the project's health-and-safety agent had resigned citing "continuous safety violations", that the development had been irregularly enrolled and inspected, and that structural cracking identified in 2023 had been concealed. Minister Dean Macpherson called the collapse "entirely preventable".
On 22 July 2025 the Engineering Council of South Africa announced that its disciplinary tribunal had found the consulting engineer guilty on all five charges, imposed its maximum fine and cancelled his registration. He had elected not to attend the hearing; his attorney notified ECSA in March 2025 that he would not participate and a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. ECSA forwarded its file to the police, whose docket with the NPA remains open. The George municipal building inspectorate, the NHBRC enrolment process and the developer's compliance are all within the police investigation; no criminal charges had been laid by September 2026.