‘The fire ruined everything’: Lives, livelihoods lost in Johannesburg blaze
Al JazeeraJohannesburg, South Africa – Just hours after going to bed on Wednesday night, Adam Kamuweluze was woken in a frenzy in his small room on the third floor of a building in inner-city Johannesburg. There was an “informal settlement” inside the building, Robert Mulaudzi, spokesperson for Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services told the media. “There are cartels who prey on vulnerable people because some of these buildings, if not most of them, are actually in the hands of those cartels who collect rental from the people,” Lebogang Isaac Maile, the head of the Department of Human Settlements in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, told reporters at the scene of the fire. ‘Culpable homicide’ The burned building was originally known as Usindiso, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, a South African human rights advocacy group, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the fire at the Usindiso shelter is an example of how the City deals with its shelters, which are occupied by many of Johannesburg’s poorest and most vulnerable residents.
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