By Mark Ogagan
More than 200 people have been left displaced following a deadly building fire incident in a building in Jeppestown, Johannesburg on Sunday morning.
Four people died in the blaze and three others were injured and taken to a nearby hospital.
The four bodies were recovered by the Johannesburg Emergency Services Management during the fire-fighting operation.
Two of them were recovered on the first floor and the other two on the second floor.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero says action will be taken to deal with hijacked buildings.
The incident comes less than a year since the Usindiso building caught alight, claiming 77 lives and left more than 150 people displaced.
Illegal connections are suspected to be the cause of the blaze. City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi says the building was never habitable.
“The building is an abandoned building, there is a lot of partitions and sheet metals, which the residents have been using to divide the building. This area where we are is actually an industrial site, so they actually divide it with those partitions using those sheet metals to divide the whole building, so that they can be able to reside. So, the building is not a residential area, but it’s an abandoned building.”
One resident claims to have been living in this building for more than 20 years and says she has nowhere to go.
“We are not supposed to be living here, but the cost of living is too high. The government does not take us poor people into consideration. Our electricity is indeed illegal. The power cables are above our heads when we are sleeping. The electricity here is not safe at all. We are just living here so that we can be able to go to work and send money home to the children.”
Morero says they are investigating the ownership of the building.
“We now know that it’s owned by a particular company, so we are continuing to finalize the investigation so that we can get the owners to take responsibility of their own property and what has happened into their property, whilst of course, the city has an obligation to deal with the current situation and the situation therefore after.”
Morero says those affected will be moved to a temporary shelter.
The Mayor assured residents that they are working on putting an end to illegally occupied buildings around the city.
Morero says abandoned buildings should be re-purposed as enterprise buildings for the youth.
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