Alpha Ramushwana29 January 2024 | 11:52

Usindiso fire inquiry: Survivor details horror of staying at the building

He survived the raging fire that gutted the property in August last year - killing more than 70 people and displacing hundreds.

Usindiso fire inquiry: Survivor details horror of staying at the building

A view of emergency services in the Johannesburg CBD attending to the Marshalltown building fire, which claimed the lives of 77 people. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News

JOHANNESBURG - A survivor of the deadly Usindiso building fire has burst into tears at the commission of inquiry looking into the blaze - as he explained how the incident has affected his life.

Kenneth Dube - who is the first victim to take the witness stand on Monday morning - moved into the five-storey hijacked block of flats in 2019.

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He survived the raging fire that gutted the property in August last year - killing more than 70 people and displacing hundreds.

Dube said things took a turn for the worse when drug dealers started operating in the building.

“A month before the building was gutted by the fire, someone was shot and killed on the second during a robbery. This was the life inside the building.”