Johannesburg - Someone should be charged with murder.
So says an angry Renney Plit, chairman of the Affordable Housing Company, after hearing about the deaths of four people, including a one-year-old child, in a fire in a hijacked building on the corner of Jeppe and Nugget streets on Saturday. Around 3am, a fire started on the sixth floor of the heavily overcrowded Cape York building, which has had no water or electricity for several months.
It was contained to a small section. One person jumped out of a window to his death from the third floor. Another jumped from the second floor and sustained several broken bones.
Plit, who owns the building next door to Cape York, was granted an order against the owners, Banco de Mocambique, in March, ordering them to clean up the building, and against the City of Joburg to enforce its by-laws in the building.
Neither reacted to the court order, and Plit was preparing to serve contempt-of-court papers against the bank when the fire broke out.
“The problem we have now in applying for contempt orders is that we don’t have jurisdiction on the Banco de Mocambique directors in Mozambique. Our lawyers are checking if we can get contempt orders issued and arrest warrants, and have them arrested if they ever come into South Africa.
“We are also in the process of launching a damages claim against the bank for about R2.4 million. We have had to empty out the apartments in our redeveloped building that faces Cape York. Also, the crèche in our building was forced to close by the Education Department as a result of the stench and rats,” he said.
“People living in the hijacked building throw human waste, rotting food, dirty water and other rubbish out of the windows. The outside of the building and all the fire escapes are piled high with rubbish.”
Residents, mainly Zimbabweans, are furious with the people who they allege have hijacked the building.
Daddy Monyane said the hijackers disconnected the water and electricity, yet charged R900 for small, partitioned areas, and R1 500 for larger spaces.
“You see those plastic buckets? They are filled with our faeces. We have no toilets. The place stinks. When the hijacker comes with his bouncers to collect money, they wear masks because they can’t stand the smell,” she said.
When the alleged hijacker arrived on Saturday, he covered his face with a cap. People started yelling at him, calling him a murderer and a hijacker. He was bundled into a police vehicle.
The residents were sitting on the pavements, many crying.
“All we have left is the clothes on our backs. We have small children here – we don’t have a nappy to change them or food to give them,” they said.
A case of arson is being investigated in connection with the fire, eNews Channel Africa reported on Sunday.
SAPS spokeswoman Sibongile Mnguni said police suspected that the fire could have been started deliberately.
No arrests had been made by Sunday night.
The Star