By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa cancelled his scheduled address to the nation to visit the Joburg CBD where 74 people died after the building they lived in was ravaged by fire.
The address, scheduled for 8pm, was to provide feedback on the outcomes of the recent BRICS Summit in Johannesburg and the panel investigation into the docking of the Lady R at Simon’s Town naval base.
The summit, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg last week, was attended by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended virtually.
Ramaphosa set up an inquiry to investigate whether arms were loaded onto the Russian ship Lady R in Simon’s Town in December.
In May, US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety claimed that he was ‘confident’ South Africa provided arms to Russia amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The explosive remarks received widespread condemnation from government and ANC officials, prompting Ramaphosa to establish an inquiry chaired by retired senior Judge Phineas Mojapelo to probe the claims.
Earlier this month, Fullview reported the Russian cargo ship, Lady R, did not load weapons or ammunition when it called at the Simon’s Town Naval Base in December last year.
Ramaphosa said, the building fire in Johannesburg should serve as a “wake up call” for the urgent need to resolve housing challenges in the inner city.
He was addressing the media at the site of the building – called the Usindiso Building – on Thursday evening.
“We are very saddened as government about the passing of so many people here in Johannesburg. This is unprecedented. Johannesburg has never had an incident like this where so many people die as a result of a fire in the centre of the city. 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.
“We’ve got to [get] to the bottom of what caused this fire. It’s a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city that a building like this…once the lease had expired, it was then hijacked and we need to get on top of this and find effective ways of dealing with problems of accommodation of housing and services in the inner city,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the emergency and social response in the aftermath of the report of the fire in the early hours of Thursday morning was in line with expectations.
He said this demonstrates that the “determination to care for the people of South Africa is…a top priority”.
“I’m told that as soon as the fire was reported at 1:19 in the morning, in ten minutes the firefighters were here. That is a real good and quick response which we must recognise on the part of the province, the city, that they have been ready for calamities and events like this. A response of 10 minutes when such a devastating fire is something that needs to be recognised.
“The sad part is that much as they fought the fire, they were not able to save everyone and some people were saved…but it’s said that we have lost up to 74 people and some of them children who must have died very tragically and this is the type of death that we never wish on anyone.
“The ministers, the MECs and the province and the city are working now full out to make sure that those who need assistance from accommodation to trauma counselling to hospitalisation are being looked after,” he said.
President addressed the fact that the Usindiso Building belongs to the City of Johannesburg but was hijacked by “criminal elements” who prey on those in desperate need for accommodation.
“The lesson for us is that we’ve got to address this problem and root out those criminal elements because it is these types of buildings that are taken over by criminals who then levy rent on vulnerable people and families who need and want accommodation in the inner city.
“There needs to be law and order in the inner city. The initiatives that we are embarking on through our security forces…one of those, working with the city and with the province, we are going to ensure that we root out all criminal elements and restore the livelihoods of people who live in the city,” he said.
Ramaphosa emphasised that when dealing with buildings such as the Usindiso Building, government must carefully balance the constitutionally mandated right to housing with dealing with criminality.
“We are not standing here to shift blame and to pass blame on anyone. And if anything, we are all responsible for the calamity that has occurred and we need to take it in [our] stride and say, yes this should never have happened, yes we should be learning a lesson and sometimes these are very difficult lessons that have been sparked off by loss of life.