Marshalltown fire inquiry: Former Usindiso Ministries director says building was unmanageable before the blaze
Glyn Weldschidt told the inquiry that problems started when four women refused to leave the shelter following the conclusion of their rehabilitation programme.
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
CAPE TOWN - Former director and chairperson of the Usindiso Ministries board, Glyn Weldschidt, has taken the stand in the commission of inquiry into the deadly Marshalltown fire.
He detailed harrowing accounts of how the shelter became unmanageable before it was gutted by a massive blaze that killed 76 people in August last year.
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The shelter was founded in 2003 to rehabilitate and extend social services to abused women and children for 12 months.
But Weldschidt told the inquiry that problems started when four women refused to leave the shelter following the conclusion of their rehabilitation programme.
"The rehabilitation process would be up to 12 months, and so these ladies had overstayed their 12 months. They had become disruptive to the programmes and bullying the other ladies. So, they needed to well be approached, and they were approached to say that they needed to leave," said Weldschid.