By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Retired Constitutional Court Justice Sisi Khampepe, who chaired the commission of inquiry into the deadly fire that gutted the Usindiso building in the Joburg CBD, handed over the report on part A investigations to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
This section of the report examined the circumstances surrounding the fire incident at Usindiso building.
Initially, investigations were meant to begin on 1 October but were later pushed to 26 October due to “teething” problems and challenges.
But with investigations out of the way, Lesufi officially recieved the report on Sunday, 5 May in Midrand, Gauteng.
It ultimately found the city and its property arm partly responsible for the tragedy.
“The report finds that the City of Johannesburg and its entities, including the Joburg Property Company, must bear the responsibility in part for what ultimately became the tragedy of the 31st of August 2023.”
It however stopped short of naming culpable individuals.
“In the limited time that the commission was able to probe the circumstances around the fire, there was no opportunity to drip down to the individuals in the various entities that must bear responsibility and accountability.”
Among the findings against the City were that it never zoned the building for residential use, despite entering a lease agreement with its prior owners.
It also found the building was plagued by crime and had been “abandoned by the City”.
“The building was vandalised by the removal and sale for cash of steel reinforcements supporting its columns, pillars, and slabs. The City of Johannesburg and Joburg Property Company never attended to repairs and maintenance of the building.”
“The building showed signs of disrepair and danger to life and property. It became liable for demolition”.
It said the desperate living conditions of the residents of the building exasperated the outcome of the fire but were not the reasons alone for the tragedy.
“The consequences of the fire would have been mitigated significantly had the city complied with its legal obligations as owner and municipality”.
In the hard-hitting recommendations, the Khampepe commission said City of Joburg must consider erecting a plaque bearing the names of the 77 people who perished in the August inferno.It said the City should undergo an investigation to determine who was responsible for the violation of bylaws, and lack of oversight and governance.
She said the process of demolishing the doomed Usindiso building must now be seen to its final implementation.
“Since all contraventions of the national acts and by-laws have been established, the city must engage in an independent process to determine who must bear individual responsibility or liability for each of of the contraventions found in our report, and to report any attendant criminal conduct to the relevant authorities for further investigations,” said Khampepe.
The Joburg Property Company’s board was also told to consider acting against its CEO Helen Botes “for the total disregard of managing the Usindiso building, despite knowledge of its disastrous state of affairs since at least 2019”.
“The board of directors of the JPC (Johannesburg Property Company) must consider taking appropriate action against Ms Botes, the chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Property Company for the total disregard of managing the Usindiso building despite knowledge of the disastrous state of affairs since at least 2019.”
The commission said two witness who testified in-camera at the inquiry, confessing to crimes in the building, must be probed further for possible prosecution for multiple murders and attempted murders, arson, the obstruction of justice and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to the victims where appropriate cases can be made.
Meanwhile, Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda was told to consider the position of the MMC for public safety, Mgcini Tshwaku “whose political responsibility or lack of oversight conduced to bring about the disaster”.
“The accounting officers of the city’s entities namely the Johannesburg Property Company, Johannesburg Water, City Power, Pikitup must be subjected to disciplinary processes where there is evidence of contraventions of their duties which if they would have been performed, would have prevented the Usindiso building tragedy,” said Khampepe.
Lesufi received the report and promised to implement its recommendations. He said he would meet with the City in the coming week to discuss the report and the way forward.
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Video Courtesy of GPG.