Usindiso fire: Building a cesspool of crime after shelter shuts

The Commission of Inquiry into the Usindiso Building yesterday heard the building was owned by the City of Joburg and landlords preferred foreign nationals as tenants because they shared rooms and didn’t mind paying rent.

During his emotional testimony, a witness, Kenneth Dube, recalled the night of the fire, saying he had jumped through a window in his room and fallen on his back.

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“The ladies in charge of the rent said they wanted foreign nationals because they always paid rent. They hinted the building was owned by government, hence South Africans don’t want to pay rent at times,” he said.

Last week, commission chair Judge Sisi Khampepe heard a witness confess he started the deadly fire which led to the deaths of at least 76 people in the Johannesburg central business district building last August.

Dube described the building as peaceful, clean, less occupied and with no crime before more foreign nationals moved in.

“When a man from Mozambique moved in, that’s when crime began,” he said. “Things like taps, sinks and gates were stolen inside the building.”

A second witness, Nokwazi Cele, said when she first moved to the building in about 2014-15, it was a shelter for homeless and abused women and children.

It was managed by Jay Bradley and was called Usindiso Ministries. “The building had a number of bathrooms and … the building was in good condition at the time,” she said.

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“Everything was functioning well because we had electricity and water before it was cut off.”

Cele said after Usindiso Ministries left, things changed. Men moved in and it was no longer a friendly space for women.

She said men “demanded rooms and they didn’t come with pure intentions”.

Dube claimed the electricity and water was cut off when about 140 foreign nationals were arrested by police.

He said they had been drinking water from the fire extinguisher. A clinic next door to the building was unoccupied but people later moved in.

That’s when “crime was at peak”. Dube said crime was a semblance of normality.

“I would look outside my window and witness people getting mugged and stabbed by young boys, who would run into our building to hide.

“We would get mugged in the corridors. I wondered daily if I would make it to my floor alive.”

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Things took a turn for the worse when drug dealers started operating in the building.

A month before the fire, someone was shot and killed during a robbery. A hall inside the building was turned into an informal settlement, where shacks were built and rented out.

He felt safer on the streets than inside the building. Residents tried to end crime in the building but failed.

“We spoke to police officials to close down the clinic but they didn’t. We also asked for ActionSA to intervene. They wrote a letter to the speaker but nothing worked,” he said.

He said he did not receive help from the government in terms of accommodation after the fire, although he did receive money from the South African Red Cross Society.