Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the building in Marshalltown, which was gutted by an inferno on Thursday and where at least 73 people lost their lives, is a heritage site, and the State has on many occasions tried to evict the illegal dwellers.
Ntshavheni visited the building in downtown Joburg, where over 50 people were treated for injuries and smoke inhalation.
"The technical team of the City of Joburg is going to give you a briefing; you can ask them how many times they have gone to court on this building in particular. It is a heritage site, that is what we are informed, and they have tried to remove the people from this building," the minister told journalists at the scene.
She said efforts to rejuvenate the inner CBD of Joburg are greatly hampered by the hijacking of buildings. She added that when the State organs try to evict the illegal dwellers, the matter is taken to court by non-government organisations (NGOs) representing the occupants.
"We have discouraged, as the government, the occupation of buildings. We do not know as yet the causes of the fire, but if a building is hijacked, it is a heritage site, and the City has been doing its part to try to remove the people so that they could have decent accommodation, but it has been continuously litigated. A situation like this takes us into a difficult conversation as a country: do we have to fight to block government to do its work?
"If we have to remove people to save their lives, why can’t we work together with the social partners instead of (hauling) government to court to prevent the removal of people? This incident could have been prevented if the City of Johannesburg was allowed, and not litigated against, to remove these people so that the building could be maintained," she said.
Owned by the City of Joburg, the building at 80 Albert Street, situated on the corner of Delvers Street, was officially opened in 1954 as the "Non-European Affairs Department" and served as the Central Pass Office.
During the apartheid era, the government used the building as an administrative centre to control the movement of black people in Johannesburg.
The building previously housed the Usindiso Ministries Women's Shelter before it fell into the hands of building hijacking syndicates.
According to the Heritage Portal, "the Central Pass Office was an infamous checkpoint of the influx control system under apartheid". The "Dompas" which controlled the movement of African people, were issued here.
Speaking to IOL, some of the survivors said the fire was too intense to handle and they had to jump out of their windows, while others used the corridors to escape the flames.
Desperate and caught up in a corner with luggage, a Malawian national who got wounded, Doreen Kumwenda, 26, said she had to jump from the second floor of the building to escape the blaze because she couldn’t use the stairs due to billowing smoke that covered the entire area.
Kumwenda, who jumped out of the window, said she couldn’t move properly because her right leg was cracked, her hand was wounded, and she did not know where her husband was, but that her child was safe.
She said her husband and 21-month-old child were safe.
IOL