In a statement issued by MMC for Public Safety Clr Michael Sun, he announced that he has joined the acting chief of Emergency Management Services (EMS), Rapulane Monageng, and other senior officials in presenting the findings of the external investigation into the Bank of Lisbon building fire on September 5 last year.
The department revealed the findings to the family members of the late firefighters Sphiwe Maropane, Khathutshelo Muedi and Mduduzi Ndlovu, who died in the line of duty at the Bank of Lisbon building in the inner city.
Four separate investigations were conducted by various authorities and independent experts.
An investigation was conducted by the SAPS as part of the criminal/inquest investigation.
This report and findings have not been made available to the city as yet.
The second investigation was done by the City of Johannesburg’s Quality Assurance team to examine the compliance levels of the building and to evaluate the structural integrity of the structure.
The third investigation was conducted by the city’s Occupational Health and Safety Unit to evaluate the adherence to policy and systems procedures followed by EMS in meeting the compliance requirements.
The fourth investigation and report was done by an external and independent expert commissioned by EMS to determine what led to the death of the firefighters and whether all procedures were followed by the firefighters on the day of the event. It also determined any failures and corrective measures to be taken.
“A presentation on the fourth investigation and report was made to the family.
“EMS has also highlighted similar findings in terms of the city’s internal investigation and the external independent investigations, which indicates there is a high degree of transparency and the city’s commitment to correct its shortcomings. The city will immediately implement the recommended corrective measures. As far as the city is concerned, such a tragedy will not happen again.
“The City’s Quality Assurance Report is separate from the two reports which we as Public Safety have conducted. Therefore, we will limit ourselves on our own processes.
“The City is working on concluding the process to make the report available to the public at an appropriate forum within the coming month,” said Sun.
“It is not our intention to open healing wounds, but to ensure the families are the first to find out what happened on that fateful day.
“I hope through this process we can all find closure of this chapter of our lives and correct what went wrong so that the ultimate sacrifices by these three firefighters would not have been in vain,” said Sun.
