Johannesburg city authorities, who were conducting a press conference near the scene of the fire, acknowledged that the building was owned by the city.
They blamed criminal “cartels” for “preying on poor and vulnerable people” by “hijacking” buildings and dangerously overfilling them.
In answer to a query about whether his administration would accept responsibility for the tragedy, Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda defended his administration, stating that it was dealing with the hijacking problem and had already addressed it in other sections of the city.
Lebogang Maile, the local legislator in charge of housing, stated that there was a chronic housing shortage in the area, with 1.2 million people in need of a place to live.
According to the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko, the neighborhood of central Johannesburg where the fire occurred is home to a large number of African migrants to South Africa.
The apartment building that caught fire is in an area where there are “hijacked” buildings, which means they have been taken over by squatters, many of whom may be from outside the nation.
South Africa, with one of the continent’s major economies, has become a magnet for immigrants from neighboring countries as well as further afield in Africa.
There is a long history of people traveling to South Africa for work, particularly in the mining sector, although the numbers have increased dramatically in recent decades.
Official figures show that there are 2.9 million immigrants in the country out of a population of 60 million, but the number could be greater because many unauthorized migrants are suspected to exist.
According to UN data from 2020, persons from neighboring Zimbabwe make up the largest share – nearly one in every four migrants – but there are also many from Mozambique, Lesotho, and Malawi.
South Africa has also attracted people from Somalia and Nigeria.
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