Johannesburg’s ‘total disregard’ for safety to blame for fire that killed 76 in August 2023, inquiry finds

A report into a building fire that killed 76 people in South Africa last year has concluded that city authorities should be held responsible because they were aware of serious safety issues at the rundown block of flats at least four years before the blaze.

The nighttime fire at the five-storey building in downtown Johannesburg on August 31 was one of South Africa’s worst disasters. At least 12 children were among the dead and another 86 people were injured, with some having to leap out of windows to escape the flames.

Others said they threw small children out the windows in the hope that they would be caught by people below. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition, having become trapped in the overcrowded building, and it took authorities weeks to identify bodies using DNA tests.

Retired Judge Sisi Khampepe was put in charge of the inquiry, which began in October. She delivered the first part of her report on Sunday and concluded that the City of Johannesburg, which owns the building, had shown “total disregard” for its “calamitous state.”

In the wake of the fire, hundreds of people were found to be living illegally in the building, some of them in shacks that had been erected in the corridors, the bathrooms and the basement, which was meant to be a parking garage. Emergency services said that the fire extinguishers had been taken off the walls, and the main fire escape was found to be locked on the night of the fire.