"There is no case that amply demonstrates the consequences of failure to comply with the obligations that the law placed on a municipality and [property] owner than the calamity that was Usindiso.”
These are the apt words of Justice Sisi Khampepe, the chairperson of the Usindiso building inquiry when she released her report yesterday on the fire that killed 76 people in the Johannesburg city centre last year.
The fire was caused by a man who admitted to killing a person and then sought to conceal the murder by setting the body on fire.
Images of bodies on the street that day signalled the depth of what remains one of the worst tragedies in the city centre.
At the time, politicians sought to blame the influx of foreign nationals into the country, some without documentation, for the state of the inner city and its buildings.
While we must emphasise that no person should be in this country without proper documentation, the anti-foreigner sentiment on display at the time was simply a diversion from the failures of the authorities to do their work, to exercise their authority.
As Khampepe’s report has found, the tragedy was in part because the city itself contravened by-laws.
The report found that the Usindiso building was never zoned for residential purposes despite Johannesburg Property Company having concluded a lease agreement with the Usindiso Ministry.
It found that as early as 2019, to the full knowledge of JPC and city officials, the Usindiso building had not only been abandoned by the owner but was liable to be demolished.
"The mayor should consider the position of the MMC for the department of human settlements and public safety whose political responsibility or lack of oversight conduced to bring about the disaster that was Usindiso and that the accounting officers of the city’s entities," Khampepe found.
While we acknowledge that attempts to clean up the city centre, albeit lacklustre, have previously been met with rampant criminality and threats to officials, it can never be accepted that the city and law enforcement authorities should sit idle out of fear.
They are obligated to act within the law, not only to fight back against crime but to prevent tragedies of this nature.
SOWETAN | Authorities failed city fire victims
Image: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
"There is no case that amply demonstrates the consequences of failure to comply with the obligations that the law placed on a municipality and [property] owner than the calamity that was Usindiso.”
These are the apt words of Justice Sisi Khampepe, the chairperson of the Usindiso building inquiry when she released her report yesterday on the fire that killed 76 people in the Johannesburg city centre last year.
The fire was caused by a man who admitted to killing a person and then sought to conceal the murder by setting the body on fire.
Images of bodies on the street that day signalled the depth of what remains one of the worst tragedies in the city centre.
At the time, politicians sought to blame the influx of foreign nationals into the country, some without documentation, for the state of the inner city and its buildings.
While we must emphasise that no person should be in this country without proper documentation, the anti-foreigner sentiment on display at the time was simply a diversion from the failures of the authorities to do their work, to exercise their authority.
As Khampepe’s report has found, the tragedy was in part because the city itself contravened by-laws.
The report found that the Usindiso building was never zoned for residential purposes despite Johannesburg Property Company having concluded a lease agreement with the Usindiso Ministry.
It found that as early as 2019, to the full knowledge of JPC and city officials, the Usindiso building had not only been abandoned by the owner but was liable to be demolished.
"The mayor should consider the position of the MMC for the department of human settlements and public safety whose political responsibility or lack of oversight conduced to bring about the disaster that was Usindiso and that the accounting officers of the city’s entities," Khampepe found.
While we acknowledge that attempts to clean up the city centre, albeit lacklustre, have previously been met with rampant criminality and threats to officials, it can never be accepted that the city and law enforcement authorities should sit idle out of fear.
They are obligated to act within the law, not only to fight back against crime but to prevent tragedies of this nature.
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