Row sparks over blaze: Officials and NGOs debate JHB fire fallout

A war of words has broken out between current and former officials, and politicians from the City of Joburg about the fire at a hijacked building in Marshalltown in which more than 70 people – 12 of them children – died.

ActionSA president and former Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba joined Joburg speaker Colleen Makhubele and Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in claiming that human rights nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) were to blame because they fought for the criminals who hijacked buildings and opposed authorities when they tried to evict people from unsafe buildings.

The building owned by the council.

One of the NGOs in the politicians’ firing line is the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri), which denied it had litigated against the city over that specific building.

“Our only involvement in the building related to the temporary placement of two of our clients by the City of Joburg following their displacement by a fire in September 2014,” it said in a statement.

“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 to defend the rights of vulnerable people, who face illegal evictions City of Joburg at the hands of either the state or private owners, with no alternative accommodation and in direct contravention of the rights entrenched in the constitution.

“Seri urges the city to take this unfortunate event as a wake-up call to proactively improve the conditions in the buildings it owns and manages, as well as other abandoned buildings in order to prevent future loss of life.”

Makhubele said: “The NGO must look for other causes to fight for.

“If they do not catch a wakeup now, they are looking for the whole city to collapse in the name of fighting for human rights.

“Why are they not fighting for the rights of orphans, children and elders who need help? “If we do not take over these hijacked buildings, we are never going to be able to clean up the city and have the programme to reignite the city because at every corner, we are met with this resistance and the criminals hide behind this kind of support.”

Makhubele said the blame for the disaster should be shared by NGOs, the city, which should take accountability, and lawless residents who continued to occupy noncompliant buildings.

“This is not the time to be pointing fingers but if we have to, let’s share the blame and then decide how we move forward.”

Ntshavheni questioned if it was necessary for NGOs to continuously fight the government.

The City of Joburg has been challenged in court several times when trying to remove those staying in the building.

“If we have to remove people to save their lives, why can’t we have the social partners working with us, instead of holding the government to courts to prevent the removal of people?

“This incident could have been prevented if the City of Joburg was allowed to remove these people so that the building could be maintained.”

City manager Floyd Brink said the level of lawlessness in the city was high and there were cartels which desperate residents paid in order to stay in the hijacked buildings.

“This talks about the shortage of housing; it is something that is probably happening all over the country, especially if you look at migration patterns,” he said.

It was difficult to say which cartel had hijacked the building.

“Usually, in preliminary investigations, there might be some form of indication. Once you hand it over to (the SA Police Service) for prosecution and further investigation, that is when you would get the findings. We need to work with other spheres of government.

“We know some of the buildings, including city properties have been hijacked. You would be shocked (at) the work we have done.”