The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) on Thursday launched an investigation into whether the collapse, earlier this week, of the half-built Tongaat Mall, in KwaZulu-Natal, was related to the improper conduct of any persons registered with the organisation.
Construction of the mall was halted after a large portion of one of the unfinished mall’s floors collapsed, killing at least one and injuring dozens more on Tuesday.
Newswire Sapa earlier quoted eThekwini deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala as saying that the construction at the mall should not have taken place, as a court had halted the project as the contractor had allegedly failed to follow the correct permitting processes.
“If any professionals registered with ECSA have been found guilty of improper conduct in the design and construction of the building in Tongaat, ECSA will implement disciplinary action,” the organisation warned in a statement on Thursday.
The engineering council had engaged the Department of Labour to ensure that the matter was holistically dealt with.
ECSA had also entered into talks with the Council for the Built Environment for the finalisation of the Identification of Engineering Work, which, when promulgated, would broaden ECSA's reach and “enable criminal prosecution of unregistered or inappropriately registered persons who perform identified engineering work [that put] the public and the environment at risk", ECSA VP Adrian Peters stated.