Johnathan Paoli
Another fire broke out on the ground floor of a suspected high-jacked building in Marshalltown, Johannesburg CBD, early Friday morning.
Fortunately firefighters managed to arrive in time and engage the blaze, with no injuries or victims at the time of reporting.
“There are no injuries reported yet. Everyone was evacuated,” said EMS spokesperson Xolile Khumalo.
Footage from the scene shows people, carrying bags, filled with personal belongings walking out of the building while emergency teams can be seen standing off at the scene.
Less than a fortnight ago, another fire in the Usindiso building two blocks away, rocked the city, leaving the building a blackened shell and 77 human lives lost.
The issue of hijacked buildings has recently come to the spotlight following the tragedy as criminal syndicates have taken over abandoned buildings, preying upon the marginalised and a large number of foreign nationals who are forced to live in substandard safety conditions.
The Gauteng Provincial government, in a media briefing on Wednesday, announced the establishment of a ‘non-political’ inquiry, which will be looking into the fire.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi said that the inquiry, led by retired constitutional justice, Sisi Khampepe, will be broken into two phases; namely looking into the cause of the fire and investigating the prevalence of hijacked buildings in the province.
“There are many people who felt this was a waste of money and resources, that we should have left it to other institutions to investigate and our argument is very clear, we didn’t want institutions that have political representation where you find a certain committee of a legislature or Parliament to probe this matter,” said Lesufi.
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