Editorial
Johannesburg - The blaze that engulfed a building in the Johannesburg CBD this week is a tragedy of monumental proportions. Already the death toll is record breaking, but the eventual body count could be far higher once rescue services manage to safely get through the rest of the building.
The saddest part of it all though is that it was avoidable. The spectre of buildings being hijacked and then let and sub-let to tenants, often the most vulnerable members of our society, many without legal permission to remain in this country, is reaching crisis proportions in the so-called City of Gold.
The fact is that no one really knows how many people were in that building – or even who they were. Some will have perished without even proof that they had existed in the first place. What makes it even worse is the fact that the city had actually given it to an NGO to help vulnerable women but, apparently, they were forced out by the crime levels.
The only good to come out of this right now is a pan-African solidarity among our leaders whose hallmark has either been silence or actual xenophobia and an acknowledgement that we have to act in a proactive, progressive and humane way when it comes to anyone, but Africans especially, seeking their own El Dorado on the continent’s southern tip.
We should be welcoming them, helping them to start businesses that don’t just provide services to South Africans, but jobs too. Instead we make it as difficult as possible for them and then some of us prey on them too, especially our public servants and law enforcement officers who should know better.
We need to clean up Joburg, for all of us who live here. But we need to do it together. Maybe this was the impetus we needed.