There was pandemonium and chaos when a scaffold with its load of bricks, mortar and builders came crashing down at a construction site. Eight construction workers narrowly escaped death when a wall and scaffolding collapsed on them.

They were busy at a site where a shopping centre is under construction in the Thohoyandou CBD last Wednesday.

Eyewitness Ndivhaleni Nthangeni, who repairs cell phones at the front of a furniture shop nearby, said they heard a loud bang from the other side of the street at about 12:30. "We ran towards the building where the sound had come from.

"Upon inspection, we saw people hanging on to the scaffolding and others under rubble," he said. Nthangeni said they were shocked at first and did not know what to do. "We could see that people were in great pain and we decided to help them, pulling them from under the rubble to the front of the shop," he said.

Nthangeni said they tried to stabilize the injured and waited until the emergency personnel arrived and took them to the hospital. "I have never seen something like this in my life, people under bricks and twisted metal, with blood oozing from open wounds," he said.

Nthangeni said he suspected the load the scaffolding was carrying might have caused the accident. "We saw them loading a lot of bricks in the morning and we could see that the scaffolding would soon give in. We forgot about it and went on with our business until this loud bang," he said.

Mr Alex Nemakonde, the community services manager at Vhembe District, who happened to be at the scene, said he was shocked." This place is not secure and is not up to standard. It does not need an expert to notice that lives are at risk here," he said. "We have to take action before the end of today. We are going to serve them with a notice to stop until we are satisfied that all safety procedures are being followed," he said. Nemakonde said many contractors were not following procedures and were just erecting their structures throughout the town.

"We need to be updated at regular intervals about the progress in buildings, so that we can send our inspectors to assess the sites. From now on, we will also need them to satisfy us that they are following their plans," he said.