The fire that killed at least 76 people last week in a rundown apartment block in Johannesburg has exposed not only the urban decay of South Africa's “city of gold” but also a failure of its post-apartheid government to provide for many of its poor Black majority.
that caused at least 76 horrific deaths in a rundown apartment block in Johannesburg is a circular plaque hanging on the brown brick exterior. It has a five-sentence inscription outlining the building's history.- was a central pass office during the apartheid era of racial segregation, a checkpoint for enforcing a despised law that controlled the movement of Black people nearly everywhere in the country.
The approximately 200 families living there were desperate for some form of accommodation and found a five-story block that had been left derelict and abandoned by authorities. They were paying rent to unofficial “landlords,” who had illegally taken over the building. “This has been a long time coming and it will keep happening until the city wakes up. It’s devastating," said Angela Rivers, general manager of the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association. Rivers said that numerous government departments were aware of the appalling conditions of hijacked buildings across the city center, but “they don't take it seriously.”visited the scene of the fire, put himself among the poor of downtown Johannesburg, and tried to reassure them.
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