Three Tshwane contract workers died after a trench they were working in collapsed and buried them in Myburgh Street, Capital Park, in Pretoria, on Friday afternoon.

The bodies of the three men were recovered on Saturday 6am after emergency services worked throughout the night to have them retrieved.

Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson, Thabo Mabaso said one worker was transported to a nearby hospital with moderate injuries, while two escaped unharmed from the 6m X 4m hole.

“The workers are employees of a contractor that in contracted to the City of Tshwane and were busy with repair work of a sewage line in Capital Park,” said Mabaso.

Mabaso said due to unstable ground, rescue technicians spent more that 12 hours using earth working machine and shoring equipment to create safe access to recover the men aged between 20 and 35.

“The scene has been handed over to the police for further investigations. We would like to call on contractors and contract workers to observe safe practices when working in trenches irrespective of the depth and the size.

Proper evaluation of the stability of the ground should be conducted before work is carried out in trenches to ensure workers' safety, Mabaso added.

He added that the names of the victims have not yet been released pending the notification of their families by the South African Police Services (SAPS) who were also on the scene.

In a similar incident, Northern Cape police recovered eight bodies under a mining tunnel near Kleinzee in Nama-Khoi municipality.

The discovery of the bodies was made on 3 August after a tunnel collapsed on the victims.

Nama-Khoi municipal spokesperson, Jason Milford said all victims were foreign nationals.

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