Khampepe points finger at Joburg, city entities for Usindiso fire
The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Usindiso building fire has found the City of Johannesburg liable for not enforcing its by-laws.
The commission’s chair, Justice Sisi Khampepe, released part one of the report on Sunday.
It found that the living conditions at the Usindiso building contravened multiple by-laws.
Khampepe said the City of Joburg needed to deliver basic services to the residents of the building.
"For instance, the absence of doors swinging in the direction of escape roots due to being welded together and the blocking of passageways, escape routes and stairways is evidence of contravention of section 13 of the emergency services by-laws.
"The use of firefighting connections to source water for domestic use due to the disconnection of a possible water supply is evidence of the contravention of the water bylaws," she said.
The Usindiso building fire claimed 77 lives and left hundreds injured and displaced in August 2023.
Khampepe says the city’s failure to remove waste also contravened various by-laws.
"The accumulation of waste in and around the building and COJ’s failure to remove the waste, keep the building free from waste, and prevent the building from being used as a dumping site is proof of contravention of sections 27,70,73,74 of the waste management services by-laws.
She says the fire’s consequences could have been mitigated had the city complied with its legal obligations as the owner and municipality.
"The process of demolishing the Usindiso building must be seen to its full and final implementation,” the justice said.
“The city must engage in an independent process to determine who must bear individual responsibility or liability of each of the contraventions found in our report.”
She ordered appropriate action against the city's entities for their part in the tragedy.
"The board of directors of the Johannesburg Property Company must consider taking appropriate action against CEO, Miss Botes, for the total disregard of managing the Usindiso building, despite knowledge of the disastrous state of affairs since 2019.
"The mayor of Johannesburg should also 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 the accounting officers of the city's entities, namely, the Johannesburg Property Company, Johannesburg Water, City Power and Pikitup.
"These entities must be subjected to disciplinary processes where there is evidence of contraventions of their duties, which, if they were performed, we would have avoided the Usindiso building tragedy.”
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