In the case of the unfinished Tongaat Mall disaster, the South African building industry must weed out dodgy contractors and take strict action against shoddy property development practices. The eThekwini Metro municipality is considering trying to force a developer to demolish the illegal shopping mall that partially collapsed in Tongaat, north of Durban, killing a woman and injuring 29 people. Council is now looking at options not only of bringing an action for [a] contempt of court decision, but also the possibility of an order for the owner to demolish the collapsed structure, eThekwini metro municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole said on Thursday. The increase in the mining of substandard building materials by illegal quarry operators could lead to building and construction site collapses as happened at Tongaat last week, an industry body warned. The Aggregate and Sand Producers’ Association, a member of the Chamber of Mines representing firms producing aggregate and sand used in concrete products, says building collapses could be imminent in South Africa. It warned recently that building collapses such as those seen in Ghana and Nigeria may happen in South Africa unless attention was paid to specifying appropriate materials to meet the design criteria of buildings. This year in particular there have been several reports of building collapses, the investigation of which revealed that inappropriate design and unsuitable building materials were to blame. Nico Pienaar, director of the association and also the Southern Africa Readymix Association, said incorrectly specified materials might lead to building collapses. Earlier this year, several high-ranking companies appeared before the Competition Commission for collusion on the construction of the FIFA 2010 World Cup stadia. Despite overwhelming evidence of corruption within the multi-billion rand sector, theres no independent body to regulate the industry.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 07:29:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015