By Yusuf Moolla
Two people who were critically injured when a service lift they were using plummeted to the ground yesterday are in a stable condition in hospital.
ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks said it was believed that a cable had snapped, causing the lift to crash to the ground at a Jacobs building, in Durban.
The men were taken to St Augustine's Hospital.
"One man has sustained injuries to his pelvis, chest and spine, and the other has spinal and internal injuries," he said.
CV Shopfitters and Joiners director Chris Venketraju named the injured men as Cecil Naridu and Derrick Khomo.
He said that the men were his employees, but he did not know why they had been in the service lift at the time.
Venketraju, a tenant of the three-storey building in Hime Lane, Jacobs, said that he had complained several times to the owners about the faulty lift, but nothing had been done.
An employee of H and B Properties, which owns the building, said it was the duty of the tenant to have the fault repaired and to bill the property owners.
Labour department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said that all the lifts at the building were halted and were being assessed. A full investigation into the incident would follow.
He said that people were prohibited from being in service lifts when they were in motion. Sigabi called on employers to comply with safety procedures.