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CALS welcomes Khampepe Commission report into Usindiso fire

- Lee-Anne Bruce

This week the Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of over 70 people at Usindiso released its first report

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) welcomes this week’s report by the Commission of Inquiry into the fire which took place in Marshalltown in August 2023. The report finds that the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Property Company must bear some responsibility for the fire at the Usindiso building. We look forward to the second part of the Inquiry which will examine the urban housing crisis in the city more broadly.

On 31 August 2023, a fire at Usindiso building in Marshalltown, Johannesburg, killed 76 people and left many more injured. Many of the survivors were also left homeless, including women and children. In September 2023, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi established a commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances which led to the disaster. The Commission’s work was divided into two parts, with the first examining responsibility for the damage caused by the fire and the second focusing on the abandoned buildings in the inner city.

The report on the first part of the Commission’s mandate was released to the public on 5 May 2024. The report finds that the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) abandoned the Usindiso building since at least 2019. Since then, the City did not attend to repairs and maintenance of the building and has disregarded a number of laws and by-laws governing health and safety, emergency services, building standards and others. This resulted in the building becoming a “danger to life and property”, according to the report.

Ultimately, the Commission finds that “the consequences of the fire would have been mitigated had the City complied with its legal obligations as owner and municipality”. The report recommends demolishing the building, and that disciplinary action should be taken against the relevant officials at the City, the JPC and other bodies who contravened their duties and failed to act despite knowing the conditions of the building.

While CALS was not involved with the Commission’s work directly, we assisted in taking statements and personal circumstances of the survivors of the fire in partnership with their representatives at Norton Rose Fullbright. In addition, we represent many residents living in the inner city of Johannesburg who reside in abandoned buildings. Some of our clients have been awaiting alternative accommodation from the City of Johannesburg for over a decade.

We welcome the Commission’s findings, which we believe take a step towards attributing accountability for the fire. We look forward to the next stage in the Commission of Inquiry which focuses on systemic housing issues in Johannesburg.

“Abandoned buildings in the inner city of Johannesburg are a symptom of years of neglect that requires a re-evaluation of policies to prioritise ingrained inequalities in the urban housing space in Johannesburg,” says Head of Home, Land and Rural Democracy at CALS, Thandeka Kathi.

“We hope that the report from the Commission will go some way to getting justice for the victims and survivors of the fire and to preventing such disasters in future. We should not have a situation where a municipality’s failure to provide basic services leads to the loss of lives. We look forward to engaging in the next stage of the Commission’s work around the housing crisis in the inner city.”

Read a full copy of the Commission’s report here.

Read more about the Johannesburg fires: ‘The vilifying of victims in the aftermath of the Johannesburg fires’

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