Conflict of interest halts commission

Tongaat Mall developer, Ravi Jagadasan’s plans to have himself, his father’s company Gralio Construction and their employee Ronnie Pillay, represented by one legal team during the Tongaat Mall Commission came crashing down this morning.

Sole owner of Rectangle Properties, Jagadasan appointed Naidoo and Company Incorporated (NCI) attorneys to represent the trio at the commission that is currently interviewing witnesses at Tongaat Town Board office.

Jagadasan is also the son of controversial businessman Jay Singh whose company, Gralio was responsible for the construction of the Tongaat Mall. The commission was established by the labour department to investigate what led to the mall’s collapse in November last year. The disaster left 29 construction workers injured and killed two.

“I failed to understand why neither the attorneys or Gralio and Rectangle could not have seen that having the employee and employer represented by the same legal firm was a conflict of interest. The two are most likely to be on opposing sides of the argument,” said commission chair, Phumudzo Maphaha.

Pillay was supposed to be the first witness to give his testimony to the commission and at Maphaha recommendations, he ditched NCI and went to Lifepollo Monaheng. Monaheng has been appointed by the labour department to represent construction site employees during the proceedings.

NCI’s advocate Saleem Khan said he had not seen anything unethical about his firm representing Pillay in the first place.

Second to take the stand was supposed to be one of the site’s supervisors Thando Mhlungu but he also decided to follow Pillay and be represented by Monaheng after he discovered that his attorney Omprakash Ramlakhan was also representing Preshalin Pillay, who was contracted by Gralio as a safety consultant during construction and alleged to be friends with Singh.

“In light of today’s revelations I feel that it is only fair to give our first two witnesses a chance to consult with Monaheng before they are recalled to the stand tomorrow. We will not proceed with any more interviews until Mhlungu and Pillay have given their testimonies,” said Maphaha.

The commission adjourned only 90 minutes after it had started on its first day. Construction workers will be interviewed between February 11 and 14 and engineers and other contructions consultants will be cross examined next week.