‘Get counselling in your own country’: Gayton McKenzie to victims of George building collapse

Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie has not minced his words regarding the deadly building collapse in George, Western Cape, that has left 27 people dead. 

McKenzie, who has always been vocal about foreigners employed in South Africa, on Monday showed little sympathy for foreign nationals who died in the collapse and the families of those still awaiting news.

“They should go get trauma counselling in their own countries. We can’t further waste money on people who broke our laws,” he said in response to the Western Cape government wanting to hire translators to assist in communication with the victim's families. 

He said this on social media after the George municipality's call for trauma counsellors speaking Chewa, Portuguese and Shona to help survivors and families of deceased people after the five-storey building collapse

Eighty-one people were believed to have been on site at the time of the disaster. The death toll rose to 27 on Monday, with 27 people still unaccounted for.

McKenzie had no kind words for the grieving families saying the home affairs department should “go and deport” foreign nationals. He alleged some of the workers, including some of those who had died, were in the country illegally.

“No matter how sad and tragic this George building tragedy is, we have been vindicated. We told them that South Africans don’t get hired. The public is not being told the truth, we have been given documents anonymously by municipality officials. 

“We met with the locals and they said the contractors took people from the roadside ... There is no register for the workers because they took people from the roadside to work in the construction. They do not know the names of those people,” he claimed. 

Speaking to the media last week, employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi said politicians should not use the disaster to “play politics”.

He said the government had initially had difficulty confirming people who were on site at the time because they had struggled to reach the developer, NeoTrend. 

“At this stage it is not about [whether the workers] are foreign nationals or South African nationals, it is about human beings. Human beings who have rights and their rights must be protected regardless of their nationality.” 

He said the department had requested assistance from the Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique embassies as some of the families spoke foreign languages. 

“It is election time and people say about anything but now it is about the disaster that has affected poor workers. 

“I have previously raised concerns before about how some of the employers employ foreign nationals just because they are cheap labour and are desperate. They [employers] would be able to undermine any laws of basic conditions. We are not on that issue now. We need to help those families.”

* Psychosocial support professionals who would like to offer services can contact Kholiswa Jobela at 078 210 5972 or Apolus Swart at 061 504 4205.