When Persuade Chimuke woke up to news of a fire in a hijacked building in the inner city on Thursday morning he thought about what would happen if such a thing happened in the building he lives in.
He quickly realised his chances of surviving would be thin.
“But what can I do? This is the only place I have been able to find in South Africa. I cannot afford to live in a proper flat.”
Chimuke lives in a hijacked building in Greene Street in the inner city, next to the popular Maboneng precinct. It is less than 2km from where the hijacked building on the corner of Albert and Delvers streets caught fire on Thursday morning, killing over 70 people.
His “room” is demarcated by curtains that separate him from the six other people who live with him in the room. His is the smallest area, about 2.3m by 3m. It is just big enough for his single bed and a small cupboard for his clothes.
It is situated at the back corner of the building. He would be the last to escape if a fire broke out.
Chimuke, 21, came to SA from Zimbabwe in 2021. He had just finished being trained as a cashier in Zimbabwe.
“It is not like I want to be in SA. You know what is happening in Zimbabwe ... there is no money there. I have tried to get a job in Zimbabwe but failed,” he said.
He has been surviving by selling SIM cards and airtime for MTN. In a month, he has to make a target of R10,000 from which his cut is R4,000. Chimuke sends money to his mother and is able to survive in Johannesburg.
Life is different there. People just relieve themselves anywhere and there is no control. The person who takes the rent, we can’t tell you his name.
— Angelo Libron, 21
He has never met the owner of the building he lives in. He pays R650 rent a month to a lady whom he knows only as the owner of the room. There is water and electricity.
“The toilets are not clean at all. Sometimes they can’t even flush,” Chimuke said.
He and the other tenants, some who pay R850 in rent because of the size of their rooms, all use communal bathrooms.
The bathrooms are all extremely filthy.
In the hallways, toddlers ride around on their scooters. Security is also a big problem for Chimuke as there is no access control in the building.
“In 2021, I left my rent money under the bed. When I came back it was not there. It was a Saturday and the next day we had to pay rent. I ended up borrowing money from other people to pay rent,” Chimuke said.
His room has a broken window and winter is harsh. Even in summer, if it is raining and windy, he is in trouble.
Outside the building, the streets are full of groups of men chatting among each other.
The building is among many in the inner city that are dilapidated and hijacked, run by landlords who are feared but largely unknown by tenants.
Across the road from the Usindiso building that caught fire is a three-storey building on Delvers Street. Its entrance is full of faeces, dark and smelly.
There is no water and electricity in the building. Tenants pay rent of R50 a week. The building has become a home for nyaope addicts who have built shacks on the roof.
Among them is Angelo Libron, 21, who arrived at the building three weeks ago.
“I don’t sleep inside the building because police raid it now and then to take drugs from the people who live there. I sleep outside the building on the other side,” he told TimesLIVE Premium.
“Life is different there. People just relieve themselves anywhere and there is no control. The person who takes the rent, we can’t tell you his name.”
Libron came to the building through his brother, who also lives there. They are both from Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
Inside the building the walls are black due to the fires tenants make to keep warm from the cold.
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