Durban - The contractor building the Tongaat Mall in KwaZulu-Natal admitted on Tuesday that since 2003 he had not registered a single building site with the labour department.
Controversial Durban businessman Jay Singh made the admission when he was questioned by the department's occupational health and safety manager Phumudzo Maphaha, who is chairing a commission of inquiry into the mall's collapse on November 19, 2013.
Singh owns Gralio Precast (Pty) Ltd, which was building the mall when it collapsed, killing two people and injuring 29. The commission is probing the collapse.
Maphaha pointed out that by law, when a contractor starts a construction project the provincial labour department has to be informed. The department had not been informed of the Tongaat Mall. This law had existed since 2003.
Singh said he was not aware of his legal obligation to inform the department.
“From 2003, all the projects you have been doing have contravened the regulations,” said Maphaha.
The commission previously heard that the architect's plans for the mall had not been approved by the eThekwini municipality and that it had issued an order for work on the site to cease.
Sapa