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Tongaat mall businessman wants Sisulu apology

Durban - Durban businessman Jay Singh wants Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to apologise for claiming that the ill-fated Tongaat mall was partially financed by her department.

"I can categorically state that the Tongaat mall was never partly funded by the human settlements department as stated by Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in an interview with the media recently," Singh's spokesperson Mervyn Reddy said in a statement on Thursday.

Sisulu made the funding claim at an unrelated press conference in Durban on Tuesday.

She said: "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 did not say how much money the department spent on the mall, or why it was funding a shopping mall.

She was briefing reporters during the sixth Planning Africa Conference.

No comment could be obtained from human settlements spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya.

Singh is chief executive of Gralio Precast, which was building the mall when a portion of it collapsed on Tuesday 19 November 2013, killing two people and injuring 29.

Singh's son Ravi Jagadasan is the sole member of Rectangle Property Investments, the developer of the mall.

When he testified on 24 July, at the labour department's inquiry investigating the tragedy, Jagadasan stated the mall was privately funded.

Reddy said: "The minister needs to correct her statement and also clarify that her department in no way funded or partly funded the mall at any time.

"Rectangle Property and the developer Gralio's CEO, businessman and philanthropist Mr Jay Singh, seek an apology from Minister Lindiwe Sisulu for the harm and negative publicity that her incorrect statement caused to Mr Jay Singh."

The inquiry continued on Thursday with a visit to the site by the commission.

It will sit again on Friday to hear further testimony from design engineer Andre Ballack.

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