THE Centre building is not on fire!
This comes after videos images emerged of fire engines next to the building as smoke was billowing out. But its origin is unclear.
It is understood the building, which is situated in the Joburg inner-city, houses two government departments – the Gauteng Health Department and the Transport Department.
The videos also follows as the departments issued a precautionary notice to their staff, advising them to stay away from the office and work from home on Tuesday, 4 October.
The Gauteng Department of Health informed its staff that there was extreme heat, noise and diesel fumes “which made working in the building unbearable”.
The Health Department further informed its staffers that it has been running on generators for over a week following a mechanical fault that was caused by persistent load-shedding.
On the other hand, the Transport Department told its work force that efforts to limit the hot air are not working.
“The head of department has taken into consideration the current situation and in the interest of the officials’ safety, decided that all staff vacate the building as a safety precaution,” read the statement.
Speaking to Daily Sun, provincial Infrastructure and Transport spokesman Theo Nkonki said: “The building was never on fire. The smoke was coming from a generator in the basement and the building was too hot. As precautionary measures, the staff was evacuated.”
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Nkonki said investigations were underway to establish the facts surrounding the fault.
In September 2018, the Bank of Lisbon building which housed various government departments were gutted by fire.
Four years later, a full report of the fire is yet to be released.
In a written reply to the Democratic Alliance before the Gauteng Legislature in July, the of?ce of the Premier said it was coordinating with all different state agencies to ensure that all investigations are completed and the reports will be provided to the Legislature, this is despite calls by the DA to make reports public.
Two reports have been received and two are still outstanding.
Three firefighters, Simphiwe Moropane, Mduduzi Ndlovu, and Khathutshelo Muedi died while battling to extinguish the fire.
