The news that more than 70 people died in the devastating blaze that rocked central Johannesburg on August 31 has left most people with a sense of shock and a feeling of pain and sadness for the families of the bereaved.

Our sincerest condolences go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives and those who were injured and lost all their possessions.

How could this have happened?

The building was a firetrap. Cardboard sheets divided rooms and it was reported that shacks were built inside the building.

No fire exits exist in these buildings and, in addition, fire hoses and sprinkler systems are non-existent.

The tragic event that unfolded that Thursday morning has evoked wide reaction from a number of political entities.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, in sending condolences to the SA people on the tragic event, included the SA government in his commiserations.

Wasn’t the secretary-general a bit too magnanimous in including the SA government?

The key reasons for fires of this nature are lack of housing, lack of land, denial of access to electricity, to adequate water provision and to adequate emergency services.

All three tiers of government are co-responsible for the basic needs of the people of this country.

All the reasons above are directly attributable to the government of the day.

The land question in SA has not been resolved.

It is estimated that almost five-million people live in informal settlements in and around the major metropolitan cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung.

The problems with Eskom and load-shedding are well known and the lack of adequate and drinkable water provision has grabbed the headlines of major newspapers on numerous occasions.

In addition, the lack of adequate emergency services has been well documented.

All three tiers of government are responsible for the conditions under which the shack dwellers live.

All three tiers of government, in all provinces, are complicit in the perpetuation of spatial apartheid.

For the minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to deny that there is a housing crisis is so much hogwash and is nothing short of laughable.

With elections just around the corner all sides of the parliamentary political spectrum are claiming innocence of their culpability in the tragic events that led to the death of more than 70 citizens.

The narrative now is that an unknown and unnamed NGO is responsible.

The authorities blame immigrant populations who, they say, are the main occupants of such buildings.

What is being hidden and barely mentioned is that rental fees are being collected every month from those that occupy these dwellings. It was reported that more than 2,500 people are living in an eightstorey abandoned building in Hillbrow.

This without the basic facilities of sanitation and electricity.

The main cause of the housing crisis is unemployment and the resulting poverty.

The housing backlog in SA is reaching catastrophic proportions.

With the advent of 1994, the ANC promised to eliminate the housing crisis.

This has just been a pipe dream and the shack dwellers have increased in the country.

The country now has about 3,000 shantytowns.

The main opposition party, the DA, is no better than its ANC counterparts, with 437 informal settlements in and around Cape Town.

eThekwini, though, tops the list with 580 informal settlements.

A World Bank report rates SA as the most unequal country in the world, where 10% of the population owns more than 80% of the wealth.

Society cannot afford this imbalance where just more than 250 billionaires in the world have more wealth than the poorest one-billion.

Thirteen-million people in SA earn less than R40 a day.

The Gini coefficient in SA is forecast to amount to 0.63 in 2023.

In a recent interview with Dr Mgcini Tshwaku (EFF), political head for public safety Sakina Kamwendo stated that in 2019 there were 432 buildings in the Joburg CBD that had been “hijacked” and the number had risen to 648.

Does this mean that the situation has become uncontrollable?

The informal occupation of abandoned buildings is euphemistically called “hijacking”.

Certain politicians and the xenophobic brigade have called for the “illegal foreigners” to be deported to their “countries of origin”.

They claim that this will be a solution to the problem.

In the metro of Nelson Mandela Bay, a number of unsightly and unoccupied buildings in the city centre, mostly heritage buildings, dot the landscape.

This is the case in most of our major inner cities in SA.

There is no doubt that the people desperately needing shelter and accommodation close to the areas where they work, would occupy these buildings.

Recently, a family in the Itireleng informal settlement in Pretoria mourned the loss of five children between the ages of two and seven, who were burned beyond recognition by fire.

The fires across the country are a recurring problem and, of course, only affect the poor and vulnerable living under deplorable conditions in the shantytowns across the country. Recently, in the Constitutional Court, the shack dwellers movement, Abahlali Basemjondolo, successfully challenged the eviction of shack dwellers on the basis that they (the shack dwellers) were responsible for their own restitution.

SA’s “Nowhere Man”, Cyril Ramaphosa, opines that the fire is a wake-up call for the government to provide habitable housing (“Why were 200 people living in unsafe building, Ramaphosa asks,” The Herald, September 5).

One of the ANC’s 1994 slogans was houses for all — their stated priority.

They have had 30 years of inaction on the housing front.

Can this be done when unemployment and poverty are widespread?

Can this be done when all the ruling parties are oblivious of the plight of the vulnerable?

Have we achieved a better life for all?

If the answer is no, then we have to continue the struggle for the complete liberation of SA society.

At this time, the battles are more difficult to recognise and characterise.

The venom is more deceptive and different strategies will have to be employed.

What we need is a complete overhaul of the whole system of governance, freedom from all forms of discrimination, freedom from race, from ethnicity, the promotion of political and economic freedom and the attainment of equality and justice in society.