“I started the deadly Marshalltown fire”

Written by: Tasha Siziba

A witness admitted to starting the Usindiso building fire in Marshalltown, Johannesburg, leading to 76 deaths, and was arrested during the commission of inquiry.

The 29-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, according to Gauteng police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, he confessed at the commission of inquiry that he was responsible for starting the tragic fire.

The Commission of Inquiry into last year’s fatal fire in the Usindiso building in Joburg CBD resumed on Monday.

In-camera, the suspect admitted to covering up a murder he had committed before setting the fire.

He told the inquiry that he had killed a man by strangulation, poured petrol over the body, and then threw a burning match onto the victim.

Police say, his expected to appear in Johannesburg court on charges of arson, 130 counts of attempted murder, along with 76 counts of murder.

Meanwhile, a survivor of the Marshalltown fire told VOW FM news that, armed men tortured people regularly in the five-storey hijacked property.

She stated, there were constant gun shots and that during one police raid, they discovered dozens of guns and ammunition.

“We saw people being killed, all you had to do was to keep quiet or get killed also”

Nevertheless, the survivor went on, saying that she was forced to deal with the illegal activity occurring in the Usindiso building.

She states how gangsters infiltrated a hijacked five-story block of flats, controlling everything.

“If you never paid rent on time you would get beaten up or get killed by the bosses. I feared for my life”

The survivor witnessed a fire erupting in a building, witnessing desperate parents throwing babies out of windows to save their children.

She did, however, express her belief that there may have been a person responsible for the disastrous event and that the fire was not caused by an electrical malfunction.