Johannesburg - Victims of the Joburg CBD fire, which claimed the lives of 74 people, have been left destitute following a fire that erupted at a former women's and children's shelter yesterday.
The tragic inferno - in which about 24 females, 40 males, 10 people whose genders were undetermined, and 12 young children died - sent shock waves across the globe and devastated the survivors.
Simphiwe Ngcobo, a hawker and resident of the building, lost her two-year-old child in the blaze, and her five-year-old is fighting for her life in hospital.
"My two-year-old passed away, and my five-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.
She said she had set up a stall selling food at night by the gate of the building when she heard a loud noise. At first, she thought people were fighting.
"I ran to fetch my children; I could not reach the second floor. I came across scores of people running and falling in their quest for safety. I tried to gain access from the other gate, but it was very dark, and windows were breaking from the inferno, which did not even last for five minutes. Later, my brother arrived and managed to rescue one child, and the other one was declared dead on the scene," an emotional Ngcobo added.
A Malawian national, Doreen Kumwenda, 26, said she had to jump off the second floor of the building to escape the blaze because she could not use the stairs due to the huge smoke that covered the entire area.
"By midnight, I just heard people screaming and crying, saying, 'Fire! Inside, fire!’," she said.
Luyanda Mbhele, another young person from KwaZulu-Natal who had relocated to Johannesburg over a year ago in the hope of a job and study opportunities, said all his hopes of finding a job had literally gone up in smoke after losing his matric certificate, ID and clothes.
"As you can see, this is all I have left. It is only now that reality is hitting me. I have no ID and no matric certificate, and my reason for coming to Joburg was to find work and maybe go to university next year. You know, the living conditions inside this shelter were like a concentration camp," the 23-year-old told The Star.
A neighbour who tried with others to get help, said the deaths of 74 people could have been avoided if help had come sooner.
Bheki Moyo said that after hearing screams from his neighbours who lived in the building, he tried to call emergency services and the police. His pleas were met with an assurance that help was on the way, but Moyo said help arrived only two hours later.
"I heard people screaming, and saw some of them jump from the upper floors. When I made a call, I was told help was on the way, but firefighters arrived only at least an hour after my call and two hours after the initial calls from other people."
While addressing the media yesterday afternoon, Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, who was in the company of city manager Floyd Brink, said the city was making strides in dealing with the illegal occupation of buildings, which is the root cause of yesterday’s calamity.
This is after it was revealed that Usindiso Shelter for Women and Children, the building where scores of innocent people lost their lives, operated as a shelter for abused women and children until its neglect by the city, resulting in the building falling into disrepair and what the city refers to as its "hijacking".
"We share the pain of those who have suffered great injury. We, as the executive, will be visiting the victims at the various hospitals."
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the city centre in the evening, also sent his well wishes to those affected by the fire.
"This is a great tragedy. Our hearts go out to every person affected by this disaster. This incident calls on all of us to reach out to survivors, restore people's psychological well-being, and offer all the help possible," Ramaphosa said.
The blame game between officials and government leaders, including politicians, continued while residents were trying to figure out the direction of their lives in the aftermath, with the leader of BuildOne SA, Mmusi Maimane, saying: "How many more buildings owned by the city are fire hazards? Therefore, the city must account."
Former Joburg mayor and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said people need to be prosecuted in order to deal with the hundreds of hijacked buildings in Johannesburg.
"It’s unfortunate that this tragedy was avoidable. When I was mayor of Johannesburg, I brought this issue to the attention of residents: that we are sitting with a huge challenge; the housing backlog was over 300 000. We had buildings hijacked, abandoned, and derelict. For some reasons, I was attacked, called names, and unleashed insults," he said.
The Star