The five-storey building that caught fire and claimed the lives of 77 people in Marshalltown was leased to the provincial development department for a shelter for abused women and children before it was “hijacked”
The five-storey building that caught fire and claimed the lives of 74 people in Marshalltown was leased to the provincial development department for a shelter for abused women and children before it was “hijacked”, City of Johannesburg manager Floyd Brink said.
Officials said the fire that engulfed the building on the corner of Delver & Alberts streets in downtown Johannesburg might have been caused by illegal electricity connections, adding however that investigations were still ongoing..
They said some 61 people were being treated at various hospitals across the metro, while 67 adults and seven children have been declared dead.
According to the city officials, a forensic services department had in 2019 raided the five-storey building after receiving information that it had been hijacked. Some 140 people from other countries were subsequently charged with illegally collecting money from tenants. Police were reportedly still to implement a plan to remove the hijackers.
“There was no water, no electricity, everything was illegally connected — the level of lawlessness was quite high,” said Brink.
In a media briefing at the scene, Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said the city was “making strides” with evicting illegal occupants who were contravening by-laws.
City of Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele accused NGOs of scuppering the city’s attempts to evict illegal occupants through court action.
Eyewitnesses told the Mail & Guardian about hearing people screaming as flames engulfed the building, which was home to many people from other countries, in the early hours of Thursday.
“I heard noises around 1am so I went to my window to look only to see that the building was on fire and people were running and jumping out of windows — babies were being thrown out of windows while some were catching them. It was too much, you could see the fire [blazing] above the building,” said a 19-year-old student who lives across the street.
City of Johannesburg officials said they would work around the clock to determine the cause of the blaze and put measures in place to prevent such incidents.
“We will do our best to ensure that we act diligently in investigating the fire and equally in our pursuit to reclaim the hijacked and illegally occupied buildings in the city,” said Brink.
Officials from political parties were also at the scene, with the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Dumisani Baleni telling the M&G: “We have been busy trying to offer our hand and assist wherever we can, we are busy taking details of the victims and their families so that we can take it up with the government at a provincial level, but where we can as an organisation, we will provide help and make sure that the people that survived here are safe.”
So-called hijacked buildings are rife in downtown Johannesburg and political parties have traded accusations on where blame lies for the failure to deal with the problem.
On Thursday Democratic Alliance councillor Michael Sun said the Marshalltown fire “could have been avoided, something that I think the government needs to do much more on and again, highlighting the service delivery in the City of Johannesburg”.
He added: “We are working to assist where we can.”
Disaster relief group Gift of the Givers provided assistance in the aftermath while officials from the departments of social development and human settlements said they would look at housing those affected in properties owned by the city.
“So far, 141 households and 382 people have been identified, and we will provide them with accommodation. We have already identified three halls conducive for placement for a day or two, and then over the weekend, we can place them in some of the city’s properties,” said Brink.
President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the scene on Thursday evening to assess the damage from the fire and to be briefed by officials on the emergency and recovery operations and the support the government is providing to the affected families.
“This is unprecedented. Johannesburg has never had an incident like this, where so many people die as a result of fire in the centre of the city,” Ramaphosa said.
“So this is tragic, this is very sad and I want to pass my condolences, and that of the government, to the families of those who have passed on, and those who are still in hospital.”