A catastrophic fire that killed 73 people in Johannesburg is down to a failure of government policy on safe housing, a leading NGO has said
The victims lived in one of the city’s 500 “hijacked buildings”, which have been illegally occupied. About 30 are owned by the government, while the rest are privately owned. Africa’s largest disaster response NGO, Gift of the Givers, said that there was nothing to stop the disastrous blaze in a block of flats in Johannesburg from happening again, as the country battles corrupt housing laws.
: “Of course it is distressing but our team is used to anything at this point. “There was a huge fire just outside of Johannesburg last year outside of a hospital. In another fire just three days ago in the Free State, 180 animals had to be euthanised – sheep, cattle, and other livestock were completely wiped out. “This is by far the worst fire we’ve seen, but we’ve said time and time again about a government system that allows buildings that are meant to house 50 people and instead house 500. “We’ve repeatedly warned the government about allowing illegal profiteers to take on the management of housing. So nothing surprises us.”He added: “Even in the realms of what is legal, there’s often a lack of fire escapes and a lack of safety equipment. This is the result of a total failure of policy. “In 2013, 4,000 people were made homeless after a fire in Cape Town. I do not believe that anything was done then to prevent more deaths from fires, and sadly, I do not believe that anything will change now.” In the meantime, Dr Sooliman says that his team will continue to hand out food, toiletries, and essentials to the survivors as they on wait on stand-by until they are moved to new accommodation., South Africa’s president, called the Johannesburg residential fire “a great tragedy felt by families whose loved ones perished in this awful manner.” Mr Ramaphosa added that he hoped investigations would lead to punishment for anyone deemed criminally responsible and would help prevent similar disasters.
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