Police report not available five years after Bank of Lisbon fire

5 September 2023

Five years have passed since the devastating Bank of Lisbon fire in which three firefighters died, but the police report has still not been completed.

This has been disclosed by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to Lesufi, the Department of Labour report was received on 19 September 2022, but the SAPS report has not been received. There is also a report by the City of Johannesburg and by the Provincial Government.

Former Premier David Makhura indicated that all the investigations would be completed by September 2021 and there would be a consolidated report that would be made public, but there has been endless stalling in this matter.

The failure by SAPS to complete their investigation is either astounding incompetence or deliberate delay to protect ANC politicians and senior officials who should be held accountable for the fire.

Lesufi’s reply contradicts Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko’s reply to me last year when she said, “No further investigations are anticipated as far as we have established unless there are developments that have not been communicated to us.”

According to Nkomo-Ralehoko, an Occupational Health and Safely Incident Investigation report was done by the Department of Labour in conjunction with South African Police Services (SAPS) shortly after the fire on 5 September 2018. It concluded as follows:

1. The fire suppression systems were not installed in offices occupied by the Health and Human Settlements departments.

2. Both tenant departments did not request the certificate of occupancy from the landlord, which they had an obligation to do.

3. Both tenant departments did not conduct risk assessments of occupancy and further contravened the Environmental Regulations for Workplaces 9 (2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Act 85 of 1993 by failing to ensure that firefighting equipment are serviced and in good working condition in case of fire.I suspect the reports are not released because they implicate former Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa and then Infrastructure Development MEC Jacob Mamabolo. Immediately after the fire I laid criminal charges of culpable homicide against them for negligence in not setting up a functioning Occupational Health and Safety Committee for the building, and for ignoring multiple warnings from unions and staff about the fire hazard.

Mamabolo is presently the Gauteng Finance MEC and Gwen Ramokgopa is now ANC Treasurer-General.

Meanwhile, the families of the firefighters who died do not have closure for the loss of their loved ones.

What is the use of investigations that are never made public and acted on?

The DA will use the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to ensure all the reports are made public.

We cannot have a situation where there is no accountability for fires where people die, as happened last week at the Albert Street building in inner city Johannesburg.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 5 September 2023