Originally published on February 13, 2014
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An inquiry into the cause of the collapse of a shopping mall in South Africa last November found that the owner had insisted on continuing with construction work despite a court order to stop and workers' warnings over the structure's stability.
Foreman Ronnie Pillay told investigators on Wednesday that he discovered one of the mall's concrete slabs was sagging by 7 centimetres before the accident. He immediately stopped working on the project and reported the failure to an engineer and to owner Jay Singh. However, he was told by Singh to continue working and to build two supporting beams beneath the sagged slab, according to a report by online South Africa news portal news 24.
Pillay also said the collapse would have been avoided if the mall had been constructed with larger supporting columns, a point he had discussed with Singh. Nothing was done, as Pillay was told the columns were sufficient.
The immediate cause of the collapse was the failure of a concrete slab to the right of the sagging slab. It was later found that there were only seven steel bars in one of the supporting beams, despite a legal requirement of 19 bars. Pillay said he knew nothing of it, as a subcontractor was responsible for the steelworks.
The inquiry also found building foreman Pillay and that brickworks foreman Prashalen Gounder had no formal qualifications.
The collapse of the half-built shopping mall in Tongaat, north of Durban, led to two deaths and 29 injuries.
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