Tongaat mall – a web of deceit

The collapse of the Tongaat Mall last Tuesday which killed two and injured 29 construction workers, has revealed a widening web of deceit and lies surrounding developer Jay Singh – and his days of being ‘Mr Tender’ may be coming to an end.
Ethekwini Metro has vowed to go after any of their officials who were ‘in bed’ with the controversial businessman, who is infamous for a string of failed construction projects.
Municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole said they were locating all companies linked to Singh, so none of them would receive tenders anywhere in the province.
Dean Macpherson DA’s spokesperson accused the municipality of slacking and said Singh should not have been doing business with the municipality in the first place because of his conviction for bribing an official in 1997. He was fined R4 000 for offering a bribe to have sub-standard construction work overlooked.
Singh’s Gralio Construction  has previously been criticised for shoddy work in two housing projects in Hammond and Burbreeze. The company is also named in the Manase report as having been awarded two irregular housing contracts.
Singh is also being taken to task by Phoenix residents who accuse his company Woodglaze of building sub-standard flats. They took him to court last week.
Singh, whose legal name is Daniel Jagadasan, is reported to have changed his name three times since 1997.
He assumed his dead brother’s identity and changed his name to Jagadasan Singh weeks before he was due to appear in court on charges of R80 million fraud in 2005. Singh already had other fraud convictions to his name and was faced with a long sentence if he was convicted of defrauding the state owned development bank Ithala of R80 million.
The money was loaned to Singh’s company and other partners to develop an apartment complex at the Durban’s Point waterfront.  The development was never completed. This was due to delays, funding shortages and the refusal of an architect and engineer to sign legal certificates when they discovered structural defects.
MacPherson said claims about Singh using multiple identities to secure work needed to be probed.
Singh’s family has interests in over 70 businesses. He is a director of Africa Construction, a company owned by Sibusiso Ncube who is married to cooperative governance MEC Nomusa Dube.
His other company Starwood Civils and Earthworks has allegedly been investigated by SARS. The company showed a turnover of R10 million six months after registering as a company in 2008. The millions are said to have been deposited by a company owned by Singh’s family, Gralio Precast.
In 2009 he was investigated for money laundering and tax evasion.
Although Ethekwini has denied having any close association with Singh, lastThursday they gave him a R277 million tender to build 500 houses in Cornubia.
Singh and his family own a string of luxury apartments and expensive cars. One of his homes is a R5.3 million four bedroom home in Zimbali which he bought in 2010.