Close to 300 survivors are being temporarily housed at three shelters across Johannesburg.
A fire engine is seen extinguishing a fire at a building in Marshalltown in the Johannesburg CBD on 31 August 2023. Picture: @GautengHealth/X
JOHANNESBURG – Hundreds of survivors of the Marshalltown building fire, which claimed the lives of 77 people, remain uncertain of their future.
Close to 300 survivors are being temporarily housed at three shelters across Johannesburg.
Many of the survivors left the building with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
READ: Joburg CBD fire death toll likely to rise, says GP Health MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko
Phakamani Tshikila, a mother of four children, is grateful that she managed to escape the fire last week in Marshalltown but was stressed about what the future holds.
Speaking to Eyewitness News from the Hofland Recreation Centre in Bezuidenhout Valley, she said chose to stay in the building on Albert Street, knowing that it was hijacked.
“I went there knowing the building was a hijacked building. I went there knowing the electricity was free, you don’t load electricity there. So I was paying someone R1,100 rent per month.”
Tshikila is currently being housed in a hall and provided with food, clothing, mattresses and blankets by NGOs and the…
