MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Fire at Bheki Mlangeni Hospital cost R5 million

Dear Johannesburg

The fire at the administration block of the Bheki Mlangeni Hospital on 20 May last year caused damage of R5 018 308, but investigations have not identified any employee at fault.

This is revealed by Acting Health MEC Jacob Mamabolo in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to Mamabolo an electrical fault was suspected as the cause of the fire and he is satisfied with the reports into this matter which were done by the City of Johannesburg Fire Safety Department, the Department of Infrastructure, and Occupational Hygiene & Environmental Services: Gijima Technology People.

But reports are still outstanding from SAPS and the Department of Labour, and some at the hospital blame the fire on an employee who allegedly left a heater on. This allegation does not appear to have been investigated properly.

It is disappointing that this hospital has been dogged by building faults despite being opened only six years ago at a cost of R730 million.

The hospital has also suffered from poor management, including a jobs-for-pay scandal, and has a poor reputation in the community.

I support the call for by the Independent Liberation and Allied Workers Union (ILAWU), which is demonstrating today at the hospital, for the removal of the CEO Ruth Mabyana and other top officials.

Regards

Jack Bloom MPL
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health

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The Carlton Centre: A Monument of Concrete and Contradiction

Rising 223 meters into the Highveld sky, the Carlton Centre was for nearly half a century the undisputed “king” of the African skyline. Completed in 1973, it held the title of the tallest building in Africa for 46 years—a reign that only ended in 2019 with the completion of The Leonardo in Sandton. It was designed by the prestigious American firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (the same minds behind the Burj Khalifa and Chicago’s Willis Tower), and its brutalist, reinforced concrete design was intended to be a “city within a city,” a symbol of South Africa’s then-booming industrial and mining economy.