Singh dangles carrot to recover rental arrears
Defaulting tenants offered personalised payment plans
CONTROVERSIAL businessman Jay Singh reached out to defaulting tenants this week in a bid to recover more than R7-million in rental arrears.
Singh is offering residents of the Woodglaze housing project personalised payment plans to deal with the outstanding monies.
Last month, the High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that he could take back ownership of the low-cost housing units in Phoenix, northwest of Durban.
In March, the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Treasury seized assets and cash worth R400-million from the businessman following an application by the National Prosecuting Authority.
The application was made after a forensic investigation discovered alleged irregularities in the development of the Woodglaze project.
Singh’s spokesman, Mervin Reddy, said the businessman “did not want to see families out on the street”.
“Singh and managers explained the tenants needed to make arrangements individually as each tenant will have different issues, therefore Singh will make an appointment with each separately.”
Reddy said some tenants owed up to R57 000.
Phoenix Tenants and Residents Association’s Mervin Govender said the payment plans were “just a way to degrade the association”.
In a separate development, the Tongaat Mall inquiry began again this week. The half-built mall collapsed on November 19 last year, killing two construction workers and injuring 29 others. The building is linked to Singh, his wife, Shireen Annamalay, and his son, Ravi Jagadasan.
The mall had been at the centre of a legal battle in which the municipality claimed that Singh had not received proper authority to erect the building.
On Thursday, Singh’s company, Gralio, was warned that it faced being accused of destroying evidence after it was discovered that the results of 13 concrete samples taken from the disaster site had not been put forward for the commission to evaluate.