Two maintenance workers’ lifeless bodies were retrieved from a sewage pit.
Nomalanga Tshuma
Cape Town – Police have opened an investigation into the death of two maintenance workers whose bodies were fished out of a sewage pit at East Pier Road at the V&A Waterfront late Monday evening.
The V&A Waterfront family is mourning the unexpected death of two maintenance workers whose lifeless bodies were retrieved from a sewage pit, behind the Table Bay Hotel on Monday evening between 9pm and midnight.
V&A Waterfront spokesperson Donald Kau confirmed the tragic incident. In a statement shared by Kau, the two men, aged 22 and 52 years old were working as contractors for the V&A Waterfront and were in the process of routine maintenance of the shopping centre’s sewage pump stations at the time of their untimely deaths.
Kau said: “The V&A Waterfront confirms the fatal incident that occurred behind the Table Bay Hotel on Monday evening, involving two contractors who were in the course of undertaking routine maintenance work at one of its sewage pump stations.”
“Emergency medical personnel and the South African Police Services were immediately called onto the scene when the incident occurred and an investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the incident.”
The City’s Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said that several City resources were dispatched to the scene of the incident shortly after they received an emergency alert after 6pm.
“We were alerted at about 6.18pm that two maintenance workers were in the pit at East Pier Road at the V&A Waterfront. The area where the bodies were situated, was filled with toxic gases, and the team were adorned in Class B suits. They were hooked onto an air-line and lowered into the pit by a rope system.”
“The first body was retrieved at 10.23pm and the second just after midnight,” said Carelse.
Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said the Table Bay Harbour police have opened a death inquest case for an investigation into the cause of the fatal deaths of the two men.
Cape Argus
