Death trap house destroyed
ALEXANDRA - A house where a room collapsed killing a child and injuring his sister has been destroyed by the Disaster Management Unit in City of Joburg.
A house in which a room collapsed due to rain, killing a child and injuring his sister has been destroyed by the City of Joburg’s Disaster Management Unit.
The incident reported in, Child dies as room caves in, week ending 14 March, resulted in tenants of the house being moved to an emergency home in Marlboro.
Disaster management had then recommended its destruction as it was old and unsafe.
A tenant of one of the shacks on the stand, Rebecca Mogala said the house was demolished in April, and was a relief to her and other tenants as most of its occupants had been transient people whose origins they didn’t know, and could have created problems to trace their relatives if the building had collapsed on them.
Mogala has lived on the stand since birth and recalled the house as once solid, but had deteriorated over time due to poor maintenance by its many tenants who occupied it over the years. The house owner Moses Mashao said his family had lodged a claim for the house and land with the Land Claims Claims Commission.
Thousands of claims for similar old houses and stands in Alexandra lodged by the Alexandra Land and Property Owners Association 19 years ago are still pending.
