Woman believed to be behind deadly Joburg CBD building fire to face murder charge

A domestic dispute is believed to have led to a woman allegedly igniting the deadly blaze that engulfed a building in Commissioner Street in the Johannesburg CBD on Sunday, killing two people.

This was revealed by Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda when he visited the scene on Sunday afternoon.

Gwamanda said further details were not immediately available but these would be revealed once the woman deposes her affidavit. She is currently behind bars and will face a charge of murder.

“A 30-year-old woman is arrested and expected to appear before the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Monday on a charge of murder,” said Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi. 

The bodies of two people were found inside in the building while four other people were injured. It was believed some of the injured had tried to jump from a balcony to escape the inferno. 

Meanwhile, 160 people have been left displaced after they were evacuated from the building.

Gwamanda said the city was working on a contingency plan to relocate them.

Johannesburg city manager Floyd Brink said as police investigations unfold, the city's forensic team was on the scene conducting its own investigations.

Brink said the fire had been detected through the monitoring systems the city has in place and they did not receive a call reporting the fire.

Firefighters were on the scene within 10 minutes, he said.

Commenting on the ownership of the building, Brink said: “This is definitely a hijacked building.”

He said the building had been a subject of investigation for some time with the person claiming to be the owner embarking on a court battle to try to have the occupants evicted.

Brink said this was not granted “because of the lack of evidence”. “He was not able to prove that he is the actual owner of the building.”

However the city and the Public Investment Corporation continued to try to implement long-term solutions to address the issue of bad buildings, saying they were looking for “a long-term and systematic approach” to this, he said.