By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Today marks exactly one year since the tragic Usindiso building fire, which erupted in the five-storey hijacked building in Johannesburg’s inner city, displaced hundreds of people and claimed 77 lives.
A year later, many of them are still living in appalling conditions, with some having returned to hijacked buildings.
Joburg Mayor Dada Morero, expressed the city’s limited capacity to address these illegal occupations alone. “It is also important to note that the challenges of the inner city are much bigger than we thought. And in fact, we require as many partnerships as possible, including provincial government. So, there are other options we are now looking at.”
Before any eviction can occur, the city is legally required to arrange alternative accommodations for the occupants and must also secure a court order to legally remove residents from these properties.
The city has identified 188 buildings under illegal occupation, including 14 state-owned properties. The rest are privately owned.
Marshalltown Fire Justice Campaign spokesperson Mametlwe Sebei said that there had been little justice for the survivors.
“The despicable manner in which the ruling class treated the survivors is evident in the fact that lots of those survivors are at Lindela detention center waiting deportation, if not deported.
“Many South Africans were forced to abandon the city to return to KZN and Eastern Cape because of lack of support. Those few who were lucky to be in alternative emergency accommodation.
“Their lives have been nothing short of a disaster upon disaster because of floods in those areas, lack of support, and many other things.”
Initially, the Usindiso building, located on 80 Albert Street, was the central pass office building.
In 2003, despite not being zoned for residential use it was leased to Usindiso Ministries Women’s Shelter, a haven for abused women and children managed by Pastor J Bradley.
The NGO was funded and monitored by the Gauteng provincial Department of Social Development during the term of the lease of nine years and 11 months, which was never renewed and saw a shift in purpose that probably contributed to the devastating outcome.
In 2018, an audit inspection by the Department of Social Services recommended that the city-owned building at 80 Albert Street in Marshalltown should be closed because it was uninhabitable. Instead, the building fell victim to hijacking between 2019 and 2020 almost around the same time Covid-19 was first identified globally.
The first people making their way into occupying the building were residents of eMaXhoseni, a well established informal settlement directly opposite at the back of Usindiso, and later many others from elsewhere drawn to the place by low rent with the target being vulnerable foreign nationals, the commission of inquiry heard.
Three months ago a commission of inquiry appointed by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi led by retired Justice Sisi Khampepe was tasked with determining the cause of the fire, and was responsible for releasing a report at the end of April after about seven months of hearings. It found the City and its entities were to blame for the fire.