The survivors of a fire that broke out in an early-morning building in Johannesburg will be given alternative housing in surrounding structures.
73 people have died as a result of the fire, and numerous others have been injured. At least 141 families have had to leave their homes.
Lebogang Maile, the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, stated that aid has already arrived at the tragedy site in inner-city Johannesburg.
“There will be social relief. We have already identified three buildings that the surviving victims will be allocated to and we have agreed that we are not going to deal with people on the basis of their nationality. At this point, anybody who’s affected, we are going to give humanitarian assistance. This is a tragedy that affects people, irrespective of their nationality.
“We must convey our condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. This is a tragedy of monumental proportions and it is unfortunate that today we are here. This, for us, demonstrates a chronic problem of housing in our province as we have previously said, there’s at least 1.2 million people who need housing,” Maile said.
The MEC slammed what he called a “cartel” of people hijacking buildings in the inner city with no running water and limited services.
He added, however, that “if there is an official of the city found to have neglected their responsibilities…heads will definitely roll”.
“There are cartels who prey on poor vulnerable people. Some of these buildings, if not most of them, are actually in the hands of cartels who collect rental from our people. Some of these people who are in these buildings can afford to pay, therefore government must create stock for rental…that is affordable.
“There’s about 23 buildings that the Johannesburg Housing Company owns that are like [that building] that they have a plan but they don’t have money for. There’s a 100 buildings that are owned by the private sector and they are neglected. We have to be decisive in how we deal with that and one of the things might be to expropriate those buildings so that we can be able to house people,” he said.
Johannesburg mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda, confirmed that the building belongs to the city but was overrun by illegal occupation.
“The building does belong to the city. It was…leased to an NGO to run a non-profit organisation to house women that needed to be given relief of some sort. That’s when things escalated out of control. When the city leases a building, whoever is taking responsibility needs to make sure that the building is well kept that they can return it to the city in the condition in which they found it in.
“But I cannot project and predict how the business would then find itself in a situation where it’s abandoning its operation,” he said.
In response to inquiries about the city’s actions regarding the challenge of hijacked buildings, the mayor explained that the city is adopting a cautious stance to prevent potential legal actions.
“The city is currently approaching the matter of addressing hijacked buildings with careful consideration, aiming to avoid any legal complications that might arise. We are aware of various non-profit organizations that closely observe our approach to building evictions. Therefore, our approach is more measured and less forceful. We are actively striving to implement a highly sensitive strategy.
“We have engaged in discussions with both the MEC and the Minister of Human Settlements, where we discussed the possibility of activating a number of buildings for the purpose of offering alternative housing and social accommodations. Our primary focus lies in implementing a strategy that centers on providing viable alternative housing solutions. This way, we can repurpose these buildings for the greater purpose of social housing,” stated Gwamanda.