The Tongaat Mall inquiry will continue next week with engineer André Ballack taking the stand.
Labour department spokesman Masede Mosima made this announcement on Thursday saying “André Ballack, the engineer from Axion Consulting Engineers, who was responsible for the structural design of the mall, is to give further testimony on the results of tests done following the collapse of the mall.”
Tests to determine how strong a column of the mall was and what load it could carry were carried out previously.
Ballack will be in the stand from Monday to Wednesday.
Two people died and 29 were injured when the mall collapsed in November 2013, leading to the appointment of the commission of inquiry.
In October human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu said at an unrelated press conference that the mall was partially financed by her department.
“The tragedy about that building is that it was partly funded by myself. I am keenly waiting to see what the outcome of that investigation is. Part of the funding did come from human settlements,” she said.
Jay Singh, Durban businessman and chief executive of Gralio Precast (Pty) Ltd, which was building the mall when a portion of it collapsed, rubbished these claims. Singh’s son Ravi Jagadasan is the sole member of Rectangle Property Investments CC and also the developer of the mall. Jagasadan testified in July that the mall was privately funded.
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