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Cape Town — An estimated 11,500 tons of canola seeds in 14 silos that collapsed at the Sentraal-Suid Koöperasie agricultural co-operative in Swellendam will be recovered once a Department of Labour investigation into the incident has been completed, the company said yesterday.

CEO Ernst Pelser said the inquiry was “normal practice” to check for further structural problems and that the area was safe to enter.

“Until then, everything remains closed,” he said.

The steel structures were about 20-years-old and had been filled to the brim when they started collapsing “like dominoes” at about 08:30 on Tuesday morning.

The seeds were being stored for the adjacent Southern Oils, which manufactures B-well Canola oil.

No one was injured.

Pelser said eight silos were still standing.

The cause of the collapse was unclear, but once the departmental investigation was completed, a team of engineers and assessors would probe the incident further and recover the seeds, he said.

Mountains of canola seeds, which Pelser previously told News24 could be up to 30m high, covered the area where the silos once stood.

Alternative storage space is available at SSK’s Ashton silos, while silo bags will be used to store the rest.

Pelser said they were unable yet to confirm how much the “disaster” would cost the company.

Meanwhile, it was a miracle that no-one was injured when 14 silos collapsed at the Sentraal-Suid Koöperasie agricultural co-operative in Swellendam on Tuesday morning, its CEO Ernst Pelser said hours after the disaster.

CEO Ernst Pelser told News24 he was just walking back into his office at 08:30 when an employee ran in to tell him the silos were collapsing.

“Nobody actually saw it, but people could hear the rumbling,” he said. “It’s only a miracle that no one was injured. I can’t tell you where exactly all the workers were at the time, but as I’m sitting here, I can tell you how relieved I am.— News24.