Durban - Tongaat mall engineer Andre Ballack was on Thursday grilled about why he had no written contract to carry out work, at a cost of R2 million, on the shopping centre.
Ballack is testifying before a Labour Department commission of inquiry investigating what led to the partial collapse of the mall in November last year.
Two people were killed and dozens injured in the collapse.
Commissioner Phumudzo Maphaha questioned Ballack about why there was no written contract.
Ballack said terms of his work had only been set out in e-mails with the developer, Rectangle Property Investments.
He said that in the correspondence, he’d detailed the work to be carried out and quoted R3m. This was later reduced this to R2m.
Maphaha said: “This is not how business is done and it creates a problem for the commission because we do not know what services were included. There are gaps because I have to rely on e-mails.”
Ballack said his firm had intended to send a contract document to Rectangle Property, but this was not done.
Maphaha also asked Ballack why he had not stopped work when he did not get concrete strength test results.
But Ballack’s attorney, Richard Hoal, said the question was “unfair” because Ballack had not known the work was not being carried out according to his design.
The inquiry heard earlier that concrete strength near the area of collapse was well below 30mpa (megapascal), the strength required by Ballack’s design.
Ballack said he repeatedly asked for the test results, but was verbally told the results were good and the concrete was up to standard.
“I had no reason to doubt the contractor,” he said.
Advocate Saleem Khan, acting for Gralio Precast and Rectangle Property Investments, said minutes of the site meetings did not record Ballack’s requests. “You said you asked five or six times, but it is not in the minutes,” said Khan.
Ballack insisted he’d asked for the results and said he did not know why it was not recorded. The inquiry continues.
The Mercury