Shortage of affordable housing driving the poor into unsafe, hijacked buildings, says Usindiso commission

702's John Perlman is joined by reporter Thabiso Goba from Eyewitness News.

The commission of inquiry investigating the tragic Usindiso building fire in Johannesburg is ready to release its report of over 1,000 pages.

It was tasked with probing the root causes of buildings being hijacked in Gauteng following the Usindiso fire in August 2023, which claimed the lives of 76 people.

RELATED: Usindiso building fire: Survivors and civil rights groups say justice is yet to be served

The Commission has outlined some of its key findings ahead of releasing the full report.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi told a press conference that 110 hijacked buildings in the province had been inspected.

He highlighted that only a small proportion at 5.7%, showed evidence of alleged rent collection by non-owners.

Lesufi said the crisis is driven by extreme poverty and a severe lack of affordable housing, 'forcing people into unsafe living conditions'.

"A lot of people work in the city areas whether it's Tshwane or Joburg, and even in some cases Ekurhuleni, and because the or accommodation prices within those areas are too expensive, they end up having to live in these hijacked and very dangerous, unsafe buildings."

Thabiso Goba, EWN Reporter

Related to this, the provincial government has declared war on informal settlements.

In Lesufi's words, over the next couple of weeks there will be 'an unprecedented number of evictions'.

It's estimated that there are around 400 newly-built informal settlements in the province, Goba says.

"They are going to be dismantling informal settlements because the provincial government has said they're tired of being taken advantage of by people who are criminals and who obviously will take advantage of other people looking for housing, leading to having these settlements or hijacked buildings."

Thabiso Goba, EWN Reporter

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation