By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The City of Johannesburg has obtained nine court orders declaring privately owned buildings in the inner city unfit for habitation and giving authorities the permission to evacuate and demolish dilapidated buildings in the city.
The orders were granted following the Usindiso building fire in Marshalltown last August, which claimed the lives of 76 people.
The commission of inquiry has since been established to probe the horrific fire at Usindiso building on 31 August.
Further testimonies from victims of the fire revealed how an unnamed Joburg councillor authorised the construction of more than 180 shacks within the homeless shelter. This would later see the shelter being a haven for criminals who committed crimes such as robberies and suspected drug dealings.
The commission also heard heartbreaking stories from witnesses who detailed how they lost their loved ones as they all tried to escape the fire.
Earlier this month, one person was injured and 50 others displaced following a fire at a building in central Johannesburg.
Joburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the demolition of these old buildings will save lives.
“This is part of the new strategy to make sure that we evacuate some of those buildings and we save lives. What has been happening previously is that the privately-owned buildings have owners who would disappear and the city would try find them without any success, and we would experience disasters like fire in some of these buildings.”
City’s Group Forensics and Investigation Services (GFIS) has 188 active cases involving hijacked buildings before it.
Of the 188 cases, 167 buildings are privately owned. The City owns 13 and other spheres of government the remainder.
Former mayor Herman Mashaba raised the issue of hijacked buildings in December 2016 and started the Inner City Rejuvenation Programme, where hijacked City owned properties were given to the private sector to create affordable accommodation.
When he stepped down in October 2019, the City had identified 600 hijacked buildings on the GFIS list.
South Africa faced and still faces a critical housing shortage – a legacy of apartheid and one of the ruling African National Congress’s greatest challenges.
The country remains one of the most divided and unequal societies in the world.
In Johannesburg, the country’s largest city, 15,000 people were estimated to be homeless earlier this year, the provincial department confirmed.