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.
“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. “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.
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