A workshop that went up in flames in Johannesburg on Wednesday, killing 12 people, was not suitable for accommodation and would have been earmarked for closure, a municipal official said.
Shaun O’Shea, marketing manager for region eight of the inner city, said the two-storey workshop had only been converted into a living area in the past few weeks. He said if the building had been inspected, it would have been earmarked for closure.
”It put lives at very serious risk. What I can say is it definitely was not suitable for accommodation,” he said, adding that it has not been determined whether the workshop was occupied illegally.
Another 33 of about 150 people who lived in the disused workshop were injured in the fire.
The fire was thought to have started on the top floor of the workshop, which was crowded with illegal residents — mostly migrant workers from Malawi.
Eight men and four women died in the building. The cause of death appeared to be traumatic asphyxia. Nine people were in a critical condition, while 19 were seriously hurt.
The injured were taken to the Johannesburg, Helen Joseph and Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospitals.
Emergency services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said the fire appeared to have started from a two-plate stove being used as a heater.
”It was a chilly night,” he said, adding that an electrical cooker running would have overloaded a system already running CD players and other devices.
”The big problem is that the cable [fuse] got too hot because too many things were connected to it,” said resident Billiat Makono, who lost five friends in the fire. ”Kassim Chisulo, Samson, Lux Nyundo, Sirus and Moosa Julius died as they were trying to escape the burning building.”
Steve Mabuza, another homeless resident, said panic struck many of the sleeping residents when the fuse exploded from overload. ”Everybody was screaming and ran to the gate,” he said.
A security guard had the key to open the gate at the entrance to the building, but could not get to it because residents had blocked the way, he said. Mabuza lost his close friend Sarah in the fire.
O’Shea said the ground floor had been a panel-beating business and there where only two toilets on the floor. The residents had made 19 rooms on the first floor, with between two and six people living in a room.
”What it [the fire] does highlight is the work that the inner-city task force has been concentrating on, and is one of the main reasons we go to court to close bad buildings,” said O’Shea.
The municipality is appealing a high court order that evictions from slum buildings in Johannesburg were unconstitutional as they did not cater to the needs of the poor.
The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) at the University of the Witwatersrand — which defended the occupiers of these buildings — said the judgement made it clear that the poor resident in these buildings should be given access to a home in the inner city if the municipality wanted to evict them from accommodation it considered unsafe.
”Our stance has always been we take action against building owners because of safety hazards in various buildings,” said O’Shea.
Stuart Wilson, of Cals, said this tragedy highlights that the city has to provide ”viable, decent, safe alternatives” for poor people.
He said if people are evicted, they face different but still urgent dangers such as moving into other buildings that may be just as unsafe.
”If anything, this tragic event demonstrates the city’s dismal failure to deal productively with unsafe living conditions. The city has to start providing real alternatives,” said Wilson.
Gauteng housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane expressed shock at the death of the people in the inferno.
”This is an unfortunate incident and we sympathise with the families of the deceased and commit that everything possible will be done to deal with the causes of the incident,” Mokonyane said.
Midgley said residents were being sheltered by the NG Kerk at the corner of Nugget and Beit streets. — Sapa