GEORGE NEWS - George Municipality has confirmed that the R173 000 fund for survivors of the Victoria Street building disaster will be distributed to the 62 victims or their families still living in South Africa, in the form of R2 500 Shoprite Checkers vouchers.
George Herald last week reported on the dissatisfaction of the local Rotary and Round Table clubs about the funds not having been made available to the victims yet, six months after the building collapse.
This week, the municipality's head of communications, Chantèl Edwards, said to date 42 victims have received their vouchers.
A total of 62 vouchers at R2 500 each amounts to R155 000. "The remaining funds [R18 000] were allocated to bank fees, administrative and reporting costs necessary to facilitate a tightly controlled and auditable distribution process by the appointed non-profit organisation [Famsa]," said Edwards.
"This is especially important to combat any instances of fraudulent claims and to account for all public money."
She pointed out that George Municipality did not start or initiate the fund for the building survivors as reported by George Herald last week.
"Funds and requests for how to donate were received from the public and subsequently a bank account was made available and all funds received ringfenced.
"The headline used on last week's article was misleading. Our response in the article indicated that at the time it was sent to George Herald, 16 people had already received funds, while the heading states that no funds were paid out."
George Herald apologises for any incorrect information published.
Sniffer dogs and their handlers were paramount to finding the people buried under the rubble.
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