A PRELIMINARY investigation into the collapse of a shopping centre at Ondangwa on Sunday has revealed that the approved building plans were changed without the approval of the town council.

The Ondangwa municipality’s chief executive officer, Martin Elago, told The Namibian that the builders put up a heavy beam from one wall to another without any support in the middle and even built a wall on top of it, adding that this might have caused a crack in the wall that collapsed.

Meanwhile, the police in the Oshana Region have identified the two people who died after the wall separating Pick n Pay and Bank Windhoek collapsed.

The deceased are 22-year-old Latoya Glorence Thanises, originally from Omaruru, and a two-year-old Ruusa Nangula Josef.

Late Thanises only came to shop and Josef was with his parents who were also at the complex for shopping when this tragic incident occurred.

Oshana Police Commissioner Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa said three other people were injured – one of them serious, who is now in a stable condition in the Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital.

The managements of Pick n Pay and Bank Windhoek have expressed their condolences to the families of the two people who died and also those injured in the incident.

Bank Windhoek has announced it will move its branch to its previous premises at the Olunkono Centre.

The Pick n Pay supermarket will remain closed until alternative premises are found.