A FORMER tenant at the Usindiso Building and survivor, Musa Hamisi, painted a vivid picture of how his 22-year-old girlfriend and unborn child died in the Marshalltown fire in 2023.
On Wednesday, 7 February, Musa, a Tanzanian national, laid bare in his testimony that was read out before the commission of inquiry into the Usindiso Building the tragic scenes of escaping the fire without his girlfriend and unborn child.
She died in the bathroom
On the night of the fire, Musa said he was woken up by screams and smoke that had clouded his room, only to find his girlfriend was not by her bedside; her lifeless body was in the bathroom.
“I found her in the toilet, already dead, collapsed on the floor. I couldn’t find her pulse. I knew she was dead. I lost my pregnant girlfriend, Londiwe, in the fire. Her body was never found. I didn’t get to bury her,” he said.
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According to Musa, it was his phone’s torch light that attracted the attention of people to his room, who used duvets and sheets tied together to make a rope that he used to escape the fire through the window.
He moved into the hijacked building in 2022, where he paid rent of R2000 for nine square meters with a toilet next door flushing with a bucket of water.
Zulu landlord collected rent with a gun
Musa detailed how every month, a Zulu man who was called ‘Nduna’ or ‘Zulu’ by other residents came to collect rent.
“Nduna lived somewhere else and came monthly to collect rent, always with a gun. Sometimes accompanied by another person. They spoke Zulu and a bit of English. He wore the Zulu cultural bracelet. He collected rent floor to floor with a gun. If you didn’t have money for rent, he would hit them on the head with the side of the gun,” he said.
On the night of the fire, it was revealed that Zulu came to collect rent from the residents, forcing them to pay as he intimidated them with a gun.
The inquiry resumes on Thursday, 8 February.
