KwaZulu-Natal police are now investigating two counts of culpable homicide following the collapse of a mall in Tongaat.
|||Durban - Jay Singh is going down. On Saturday police search and rescue officers pulled the second body out of the rubble of Singh’s collapsed Tongaat mall, bolstering calls for the shady businessman to be prosecuted.
The body of construction worker Leonard Masuku was uncovered by earthmovers at the site. Paramedics, firefighters and police officers used cutting tools to free his body.
Earlier in the week emergency workers found the body of Zakhiti Nxumalo in a mangled heap of concrete and steel.
On Saturday, city manager S’bu Sithole came out in support of mayor James Nxumalo’s call to have Singh and his associates blacklisted from getting any more work from the city. Sithole said he wanted Singh prosecuted.
Provincial police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker said on Saturday that police were now investigating two counts of culpable homicide.
“Investigations are ongoing. But they’re dependent on other investigations involving the Department of Labour, the municipality and other government departments. An arrest is dependent on a lot of factors, but we’re satisfied with the progress of the investigation,” said Naicker.
Sithole has also vowed to find out if any city officials were in bed with Singh, who has a litany of failed projects.
Sithole was adamant on Saturday that the city was not to blame for the disaster. “We do not have blood on our hands. We have done everything to put a stop to this construction. We put up stop-work notices and as a last resort also went to court. In fact, the public should give us credit for trying our best and should condemn this company.”
Sithole vowed to review housing regulations which allowed dodgy contractors to get away with paying paltry fines when their work was substandard. “We need stringent regulations with hefty fines.”
He said while the city intended blacklisting Singh, it would not be easy because they would need to establish all the companies Singh has links to.
He said the police should follow up with criminal charges.
This week Singh went to ground, but he answered questions from the Sunday Tribune via his preacher Mervin Reddy.
In respect of the Tongaat mall, he said he was not responsible for “engineers doing the construction”.
Reddy said Singh would co-operate fully with investigations and, if found guilty, was “willing to face the consequences”. “He has never bribed anyone in or out of government. We are not surprised that the city has reacted this way. Elections are around the corner and political opportunists are trying to score political points,” Reddy said.
DA spokesman Dean Macpherson said Singh’s ANC’s links had protected him from sanction. “I find it strange that the eThekwini Municipality is now making these swift moves to blacklist him and strip him of his tenders when he should not be doing any business with any state body because of his criminal conviction for bribery.”
He said the ANC-run council had allowed Singh to prosper in spite of his failings. “He’s extremely arrogant. He defied court orders and his shoddy workmanship, a key feature in most of his developments, has left two people dead.
“We need a full commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge to examine his conduct, his connections in the city, and to unravel his web of companies.”
MacPherson said claims about Singh using multiple identities to secure work needed to be probed.
Singh is also being taken to task by Phoenix residents who are living in sub-standard houses that his company Woodglaze built on city land.
Attorney Ramesh Luckychund, representing hundreds of residents who are suing for defects in their houses, said the city was co-operating. “Because of the pressure on the municipality after the Tongaat disaster and Jay Singh’s involvement, it finds itself on the back foot.”
Luckychund asked how the city could justify the sale of municipal land to Singh. “This guy has flouted so many rules and regulations… how did they allow him to build.
“I definitely think all the matters against Jay Singh should be consolidated and handled by one judge. In that way the judge would have a clearer picture of what has been going on and it would enable him to arrive at a just decision.”
A company search by the Sunday Tribune established that Singh’s family has interests in 70 businesses.
He has also been linked to a controversial deal at Durban’s Point waterfront.
This came up recently in an unrelated Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration case involving Vijay Misra, the former chief executive of the parastatal development bank, Ithala.
Misra was fired for negligence in respect of a number of instances of alleged reckless lending, including an R88 million loan to a consortium including Jay Singh.
Misra allegedly lent the money to the consortium without securing surety for the loan. The money was lent to Dolphin Whisper Trading 23, a company nominally headed by former president Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter Nandi Mandela, whose consortium included Vaughan Charles, Marcel Henry, Craig Simmer, Rajen Naidoo, Henry Msinga, Dan Cloete, Dorasamy Govender and Christian Gouws.
They took an R88 million loan from Ithala, according to sections of a forensic report seen by the Sunday Tribune, to build a residential block at Durban’s Point in 2005. The shell of the building was abandoned and remains an eyesore in the swanky residential development.
The consortium appears to have repaid R26m, but still owes Ithala R62m. The report said the development fell into financial difficulties when the contractor, Prainder Civils and Earthworks CC, was accused of poor workmanship and dismissed.
“A court action confirmed this dismissal and Dezzo Projects CC was appointed. Shortly thereafter, however, Ithala decided to withdraw its funding, which culminated in a liquidation application instituted by members of Dolphin Whisper,” the report said.
Prainder Civils was owned by Jay Singh and the forensic report reveals that a week before Ithala approved the loan to Dolphin Whisper, its shareholding structure changed to include Harikrishen Hansraj, the sole owner of Prainder Civils.
“The directors and indirect shareholders of Dolphin Whisper were also service providers to the company, which may have constituted a conflict of interest,” the report said.
Hansraj was an effective 60 percent shareholder in Dolphin Whisper.
Prainder Civils was paid R18m.
In the Dolphin Whisper prospectus submitted to Ithala in support of the loan is a Prainder Civils brochure. It said the firm “emerged out of the throes of apartheid” and “to avoid being labelled as a threat to the big companies of the time, operated under a number of small entities held together by a strong, single management team”.
The brochure said Prainder was the biggest black firm to work on the International Convention Centre, completing earthworks to the value of R35m.
“Key members include Jay Singh, a man with 20 years experience with the company.
“He is also involved in the bus industry, operating about 500 buses.”
*Reporting by Jeff Wicks, Nathi Olifant, Amanda Khoza, Mervyn Naidoo and Agiza Hlongwane
Sunday Tribune