Mall developer threatens to sue Sisulu

Durban property developer Jay Singh has vowed to sue Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu. Picture by: Sibonelo Ngcobo

Durban property developer Jay Singh has vowed to sue Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu. Picture by: Sibonelo Ngcobo

Published Oct 24, 2014

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Durban - Property developer Jay Singh has vowed to sue Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu.

Singh was reacting to comments Sisulu made in Durban earlier in the week claiming that the Department of Human Settlements had partly financed the doomed Tongaat Mall.

A section of the partly built mall collapsed, killing two workers and injuring 29, in November, four months before it was to have been opened.

Singh is the chief executive of Gralio Precast (Pty) Ltd, the mall contractor. His son, Ravi Jagadasengh, was the director of Rectangle Property Investment, the developer.

In July, Jagadasengh told the commission of inquiry investigating the collapse that the R250-million mall project was privately funded.

But Sisulu told a press conference at the international convention centre on Tuesday that her department had partly funded the doomed mall.

“The tragedy about that building is that it was partly funded by myself,” she said.

Ndivhuwo Mahaya, the spokesman for her department, said there was an internal investigation into whether funds Singh had received for social housing projects had been diverted to the mall development.

Asked why Sisulu had stated that she had partially funded the mall, Mahaya said: “The minister… must have access to documents… on the investigation, so maybe that’s how she got to the conclusion.”

Singh said if he built houses – he cited the Cornubia project, north of Durban – and was paid for the work, what he did with the profits had nothing to do with Sisulu’s department.

“I am going to sue her,” he said.

Daily News

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