Injured South Africans in hospital

Members of the South African Army transport a pilgrim, who sustained injuries in a collapsed church guesthouse in Lagos and was evacuated from Nigeria, upon arriving at an air force base north of Johannesburg September 22 2014. The death toll from the collapse of the church guesthouse in Lagos has risen to 115, South African minister Jeff Radebe said on Monday, urging the heavily-criticised Nigerian government to investigate the "tragedy". Minister in the Presidency Radebe said 84 South Africans who were part of visiting church groups had died in the September 12 incident. He was speaking at the air force base north of Johannesburg where 25 South Africans who were injured returned for treatment.

Members of the South African Army transport a pilgrim, who sustained injuries in a collapsed church guesthouse in Lagos and was evacuated from Nigeria, upon arriving at an air force base north of Johannesburg September 22 2014. The death toll from the collapse of the church guesthouse in Lagos has risen to 115, South African minister Jeff Radebe said on Monday, urging the heavily-criticised Nigerian government to investigate the "tragedy". Minister in the Presidency Radebe said 84 South Africans who were part of visiting church groups had died in the September 12 incident. He was speaking at the air force base north of Johannesburg where 25 South Africans who were injured returned for treatment.

Published Sep 24, 2014

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Johannesburg - None of the 25 injured South Africans, who survived a building collapse in Nigeria, have been discharged from hospital yet, the health department said on Wednesday.

“All of them are still in hospital,” spokesman Joe Maila said.

He could not answer questions about those in lockdown as he was unaware of it.

“I don't know about that, what does that mean. I don't know if doctors will be able to speak on the record of patients.”

On Monday, Deputy Social Development Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu told reporters in Pretoria that the 25 patients were under a 48-hour lockdown.

“Everybody coming out of Lagos is on a 48-hour lockdown. They can't leave the hospital until the 48 hours are over,” she said at the time.

“Irrespective of the injury, all patients are going to be here for 48 hours. You know that there are a lot of airborne diseases in West Africa at this stage. They need to be fully decontaminated.”

The families of the injured were allowed around five minutes to see them when they arrived in South Africa on Monday.

Social Development Department spokeswoman Lumka Oliphant could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.

The SABC this week reported that 10 of the injured had undergone surgery on Monday night as most of them had sustained fractures.

Maila could not confirm this on Tuesday.

Around 115 people, among them 84 South Africans, were killed and dozens trapped when the multi-storey guesthouse attached to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, run by Nigerian preacher TB Joshua, collapsed on Friday, September 12.

Some 350 South Africans were thought to be visiting the church in Lagos when the building came down. - Sapa

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