Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Friday put the blame for part of the roof collapsing at Johannesburg’s Charlotte Maxeke Hospital firmly on the shoulders of a bungling contractor.

He said the contractor‚ who was ordered to leave the premises after the collapse‚ had packed heavy crushed stone on part of a roof that was not designed to carry any load.

“It was just outright stupidity‚” he told CapeTalk (www.capetalk.co.za) radio in an interview on Friday.

“They went and packed the crushed stone there and I can tell you… any weight which you put on there it will collapse.”

Democratic Alliance provincial legislature member Jack Bloom asked‚ in response: “How did we employ such an incompetent contractor?”

Bloom told the radio station that last week part of the ceiling had collapsed at the hospital’s dental clinic which had forced some people to evacuate the affected area.

He said there needed to be an urgent investigation into the structural problems at the facility.