Thandiswa Mazwai 'heartbroken' about lives lost in Marshalltown fire

Thandiswa Mazwai has lamented crime in the Johannesburg CBD after the Usindiso building caught alight on Thursday morning, leaving 73 people dead and more than 50 injured.

Pastor Glyn Weldschidt, one of the directors of Usindiso Shelter, a nonprofit organisation (NPO) that operated for more than a decade, said the building was once a women’s shelter for abuse victims, but a small group of them allegedly hijacked the building from the NPO through threats and aggression. 

Thandiswa symphathised with the families affected by the tragedy. 

"So heartbroken for the people and families who suffered the tragedy in a building in Joburg CBD yesterday. The city has literally become uninhabitable. The crime, the desperation, the lack of services and policing. This government has completely turned its back on the suffering."

Thandiswa's sister Ntsiki also took to her timeline to express her grief about the incident.

"We mourn as a country," she wrote.

"The people being insensitive and cruel about the Joburg fire are the same people who are going to need us to be understanding when their loved ones die. It's deep," she wrote in another post.