Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni appeared to be shifting the blame for the State’s failure to reclaim hijacked buildings in Johannesburg to NGOs she claimed litigated against many attempts to evict illegal occupants.
In one of the country’s worst disasters, 74 people died and more than 40 were injured in a fire in a block of flats belonging to the City of Joburg in Marshalltown on Thursday.
Of those killed, about 24 were females, 40 males and 10 people whose genders were undetermined. Twelve were young children.
The building previously housed the Usindiso Ministries Women’s Shelter before it fell into the hands of building hijacking syndicates.
During her visit to the scene, Ntshavheni confirmed that the building was a heritage site. She said when the State organs try to evict the illegal dwellers, the matter is taken to court by NGOs representing the occupants.
“The technical team of the City of Joburg is going to give you a briefing; you can ask them how many times they have gone to court on this building in particular. It is a heritage site, that is what we are informed, and they have tried to remove the people from this building,” the minister told journalists at the scene.
She said efforts to rejuvenate the inner CBD of Joburg are greatly hampered by the hijacking of buildings.
“We have discouraged, as the government, the occupation of buildings. We do not know as yet the causes of the fire, but if a building is hijacked, it is a heritage site, and the City has been doing its part to try to remove the people so that they could have decent accommodation, but it has been continuously litigated.
“A situation like this takes us into a difficult conversation as a country: do we have to fight to block the government from doing its work?
“If we have to remove people to save their lives, why can’t we work together with the social partners instead of (hauling) the government to court to prevent the removal of people? This incident could have been prevented if the City of Joburg was allowed, and not litigated against, to remove these people so that the building could be maintained,” she said.
Her remarks were echoed by former Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who now leads ActionSA.
“For more than three years as mayor of the City of Joburg, I repeatedly warned about the dangers hijacked buildings pose to the people living in them, and that they are a disaster waiting to happen. I attempted to reclaim more than 400 of these buildings to provide dignified social housing. But, instead of receiving support from the provincial or national government to ensure no person lives in squalor, I was obstructed at every corner while non-profit organisations blocked attempts in court to have people removed from unsafe living conditions,” he said.
In a statement, non-profit human rights organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) said the fire at the building was an example of how the City dealt with its shelters, which were occupied by many of Johannesburg’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.
“The conditions of the shelters and transitional housing need to be urgently improved and people living in them need access to basic services.
SERI has never litigated against the City of Johannesburg in relation to this building, our only involvement in the building related to the temporary placement of two of our clients by the City of Johannesburg following their displacement by a fire in September 2014.
“However, SERI has consistently tried to engage the City to improve conditions in its shelters, to no avail. To shift the blame to NGOs, as people speaking for the City are currently doing, speaks to the municipality’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the inner-city housing crisis. Despite these tactics, and the City’s ongoing recalcitrance, SERI remains determined in defending the rights of vulnerable people who face illegal evictions in the City of Johannesburg at the hands of either the state or private owners with no alternative accommodation and in direct contravention of the rights entrenched in Constitution.”
Simphiwe Ngcobo, a hawker and resident of the building, lost her 2-year-old child in the blaze, and her 5-year-old is fighting for her life in hospital.
“My 2-year-old passed away, and my 5-year-old is in the hospital. As I am sitting like this, I have lost everything.
I don’t know where I will go with my child, who is still in the hospital,” said Ngcobo.
Meanwhile, Sekunjalo and Survé Philanthropies have pledged support for victims of the Marshalltown fire.
“The right to adequate shelter and standard of living is a basic human right.
That the building was in the words of some, ‘an accident waiting to happen’, does not negate the responsibility of all human beings to care for one another, and for all human beings to be safe and secure.
“We hope that the lessons learnt out of this catastrophe can be taken to heart and implemented to prevent such an incident from ever occurring again”, said Dr Iqbal Survé, chairman of the Sekunjalo Group and Survé Philanthropies.
Cape Times