Outside the Soweto mortuary, the director of forensic services clarified that “of all the bodies collected, only twelve can be identified by visual means.”
The terrible fire that ravaged an occupied building in central Johannesburg on Thursday increased to 76 victims this Friday, September 1, the government said, as bereaved families went one by one to the mortuary to claim the bodies found identify. “We have 76 deaths, two people died in hospital” from their injuries, Health Minister Joe Phaahla told the press.
Outside the Soweto mortuary, Thembalethu Mpahlaza, director of forensic services, said that “of all the bodies collected, only twelve are visually identifiable.” For all others, “it will take some time for the DNA samples to be ready.”
While clubs distributed blankets and clothing early in the morning to more than a hundred survivors gathered at a reception center, police dogs were still searching the rubble of the building in Johannesburg where around 200 families, including Fourth World South Africans and migrants, were trapped .
An investigation has been launched
On Wednesday night, many were behind locked gates designed to prevent criminals and police from entering this notorious and run-down center of South Africa’s economic capital. An investigation has been launched. But the tragedy is already rekindling the debate about these disused and “repurposed” buildings coming under the control of slumlords or mafia gangs that collect rent from poor families.
An opulent business district during the apartheid era, the center of the former “City of Gold” is home to a thousand buildings of this type, according to the city, which are disconnected from the electricity grid and in which people heat and cook with gas and burn paraffin. During his visit on Thursday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to “address the housing problem” in city centers.
“Predictable” drama
At the height of the drama, the building belonged to the municipality and was even listed as a historical monument. Under apartheid, black South Africans went there to get their “passports,” those papers that gave them access to white areas to work. It was most recently used as a refuge for abused women, but in recent years it has been “assaulted and abused,” according to the town hall.
This tragedy was unfortunately “foreseeable”, denounces Mervyn Cirota, opposition councilor. “Many of these buildings are overcrowded. There are no toilets, water or electricity. South Africans call these buildings “hijacked” or “hijacked”. The police refuse to go there without any compelling reason; these are lawless areas. Its population is heterogeneous, unemployed, families, habitual offenders, illegal immigrants.
“You are dealing with organized crime”
After the end of apartheid about thirty years ago, the white and wealthy population left the center to seek refuge behind the high walls and electric fences of houses in wooded and peaceful suburbs. The black masses who came from the countryside in search of work began to occupy vacant buildings. Today, the country’s richest city still attracts people looking for a better life. This economic migration increases the pressure on housing construction during the crisis. According to the Center for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), the country of nearly 60 million people is 3.7 million roofs short.
In these buildings “you are dealing with organized crime.” These people know the law and have a network. Some are getting proper ownership documents,” said Lucky Sindane, spokesperson for the anti-crime unit. Authorities occasionally carry out raids to evict their illegal residents, often relying on armed private security forces nicknamed “the Red Ants” and known for their violence.