77 people died and when the building they lived in burnt down in Johannesburg.
Fires as big as the one in downtown Johannesburg last week, which claimed 77 lives and injured scores of people, cannot be attributed solely to illegal electricity connections, according to forensic investigator Calvin Rafadi.
“Sometimes when crime syndicate leaders that claim responsibility for buildings cannot get people to leave it, they instigate fires to get the building back under their control to continue their online scamming, drug trade and other illegal activities,” Rafadi told the Mail & Guardian.
This comes after City of Johannesburg manager Floyd Brink said last week that illegal connections were a possible cause for the fire that gutted 80 Albert Street, leaving some victims burnt beyond recognition. Brink said the building had been leased from the provincial department of social development to the Usindiso Shelter for abused women and children before it was “hijacked”.
City officials said the forensic services department had, in 2019, raided the five-storey building after receiving information that it had been hijacked. Some 140 people were subsequently charged with illegally collecting money from tenants. Police were reportedly yet to implement a plan to remove the hijackers.
Rafadi said there are indications that the fire was instigated after survivors said they could not escape the building because the doors to the exit were locked, leaving them with the only option of jumping out of the windows.
“These syndicates lock the doors and gates and make sure nobody gets out because they have an ulterior motive if the building becomes unlivable,” he said.
He added that experience showed it was only a matter of time before authorities forgot about the fire and moved on, which would lead to another cycle of syndicates once again taking over the building.
“When the media reports die out, the government will start to deport those that they have housed and that building and many others like that will be taken over again — we will definitely see more fires,” Rafadi said.
On Monday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced that retired constitutional court judge Sisi Khampepe would chair a commission of inquiry into last week’s fire, along with advocate Thulani Makhubela and former Ekurhuleni councillor Vuyelwa Mathilda Mabena.
“The commission will investigate the prevalence of hijacked buildings in Johannesburg, what caused the deadly blaze in Marshalltown and who must shoulder the total responsibility for this tragedy,” Lesufi said, adding that the commission’s inquiry would not interfere with the police investigation into the cause of the fire.
“The Gauteng government seeks a comprehensive overhaul of the underlying issues that put the lives of the province’s residents in danger, and the commission is the initial step in achieving this objective,” he said.
The City of Johannesburg said it had provided survivors of the fire with accommodation in community halls. The council is expected to meet soon to discuss the hijacking of the building and the audits of 20 other hijacked structures in the metro.
“After council, we expect the City of Johannesburg mayor to give us concrete reports, dates and stats, and then we will know at which point this became a hijacked building,” speaker Colleen Makhubele said.
Meanwhile, a gas explosion occurred on the corner of Bertha and De Korte streets in Johannesburg’s Braamfontein area on Tuesday afternoon, causing another fire, while Egoli Gas employees were working on a steel pipe that had a suspected leak, officials said. There were no reports of injuries.
“The explosion is from the Egoli gas pipes, they are busing doing the isolation now as we speak. The EMS (Johannesburg emergency management services) are on the scene, and the city manager is here on the scene as well, to take charge,” Johannesburg member of the mayoral committee for public safety Mgcini Tshwaku said in a recorded video message.
Johannesburg EMS said the fire had since been extinguished, adding: “We have no injuries or fatalities reported.”
*This story has been updated to add details on an explosion and fire in downtown Johannesburg on Tuesday