The City of Johannesburg has started the process to demolish the Usindiso building that went up in flames in August 2023, leaving more than 70 people dead.
A new property is expected to be built in its place.
In a response to TimesLIVE Premium, the city's spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the municipality conducted a visual assessment of the building and concluded that the integrity of the structure made it uninhabitable.
Modingoane said moves towards demolition had started, while the city awaited council approval, which should take place between February and March. After this, the city would advertise a tender for a new development after the unsafe building had been demolished, he said.
Modingoane said no-one was in the building as it had been guarded by the Johannesburg metro police.
On August 31, a fire broke out at the building, killing 76 people. The tragedy attracted international media and forced the Gauteng government to establish a commission of inquiry into the disaster.
When TimesLIVE Premium visited the Usindiso building at the corner of Albert and Delvers streets in Marshalltown, part of the barbed wire around the building had been cut. The walls that had been built to seal the windows had been demolished.
Residents and workers near the building said for weeks on end, vagrants and drug addicts made their way into the building stealing whatever they could, including the window frames.
“Nyaope boys get into the building mostly at night and sometime during the day. They steal window frames and anything that is steel inside the building. They are also targeting the steel infrastructure around the lift, which they take for scrap. It is really a sad situation,” said a security guard in one of the buildings, who wished to not be named.
This was echoed by a cleaner who works along Albert Street.
“I have seen nyaope boys get into the building during the day. They don’t stay there. They get in and take scrap then leave,” she said.
There are, however, security guards who watch the building from outside.
Meanwhile, a 29-year-old man has been arrested by Gauteng police after he confessed to starting the inferno that gutted the building.
He had allegedly confessed to beating and strangling another resident while high on drugs.
He had reportedly poured petrol on the body and started a fire to cover up the murder. This rapidly spread, leading to the inferno that devastated the building.
His case was postponed to February 2 in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court for verification of the accused’s documents and citizenship.
He is facing charges of arson, 76 counts of murder and 86 counts of attempted murder.
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