The couple seriously hurt when scaffolding collapsed at the V&A Waterfront have hired an engineer to investigate the incident.
|||Cape Town
The Namibian couple seriously hurt when scaffolding collapsed on them at the V&A Waterfront have hired an engineer to investigate the incident.
Drikus and Danita Swanepoel were still recovering in Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town on Monday, and while Danita spoke to the Cape Argus, Drikus was in surgical ICU and in too much pain to be interviewed.
He has a broken pelvis, left femur and right knee. He had surgery on Sunday and doctors are waiting for him to regain strength before operating on his knee, Danita said.
She has a cut to her head that needed 13 stitches.
The couple, who run a sport hunting business outside Windhoek, had dined at the Waterfront on Saturday evening and were on their way for a ride on the Wheel of Excellence, the giant Ferris wheel, when scaffolding which was part of the Absa Cape Epic’s registration area collapsed on them. It had been put up by a contracted rigging company.
The Cape Epic did not respond to queries, including questions about the identity of the company involved.
“The last thing I remember is walking from the restaurant. When I came to, both of us were lying on the ground. I was covered in blood and Drikus was holding my hand,” Danita said.
While she was speaking, her lawyer Basil de Sousa rang, asking her to retract specific information. He told the Cape Argus they had a “pretty good idea” why the scaffolding collapsed, but declined to elaborate, saying the engineer’s report would probably be the basis of a civil case.
Meanwhile, mayor Patricia de Lille’s office declined to give an update on the investigation into a scaffolding collapse outside Cape Town Stadium last year.
Florentina Heaven-Popa, 33, died and 20 people were injured after the scaffolding supporting an advert collapsed before a Linkin Park concert in November.
De Lille immediately assured people “the city has moved pro-actively to institute an independent external investigation into the causes of the incident”.
She said the police and a structural engineering firm were investigating.
On Monday, her spokesman, Solly Malatsi, said: “The police have requested that the city not release the findings of its investigation, so as to avoid prejudicing the legal process. The city is co-operating with this request.”
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said police were awaiting a report from the Department of Labour “that will indicate further investigation direction”.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus