Giwusa: Usindiso Commission recommendations must be implemented ‘immediately’
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa) says the death of 77 people in the Usindiso building fire cannot be treated as a natural disaster.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi released the Usindiso Commission of Inquiry's final report on Wednesday, highlighting Johannesburg's dangerous and deteriorating housing conditions.
The commission was set up after a fire ripped through the hijacked and overcrowded five-storey building in Marshalltown shortly after midnight on 31 August.
It was later discovered that emergency exits on most floors of the hijacked building had been barricaded, trapping many sleeping residents.
The incident claimed the lives of 77 people, and others were injured and displaced.
The union’s president, Mametlwe Sebei, labelled the incident “social murder”, saying the findings revealed the systemic failure of the City of Johannesburg, the provincial government, and successive national administrations.
“The report correctly identifies that the root cause of this tragedy is not the sensationalised narrative of 'building hijackings' but the direct result of extreme poverty, a catastrophic lack of affordable housing, and a government that has abandoned its constitutional duty to the people,” said Sebei.
He added that the term “hijacked buildings” was a myth used by authorities to evade responsibility for providing adequate housing.
Sebei said that while the report from the Usindiso Commission was welcomed, its recommendations must be implemented immediately.
The recommendations included providing basic services by the city to dilapidated buildings immediately.
“Using this nationalised industry, the state must launch an emergency program to revitalise every dilapidated inner-city building, build millions of new public houses, and save and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
”The city must, within 30 days and not years, begin the emergency rollout of water, sanitation, and safe electricity to all occupied buildings identified in the report.”
Sebei called on the city to expropriate all abandoned buildings and well-located vacant land for public housing without compensation.
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