DA leaders hear horror tales of life in a decaying Joburg building

The lift no longer works. The emergency staircase has been declared unsafe. Black mould stains the walls, running water is sporadic and residents say three fires have torn through the building in the past month.

For the families living at Maxwell Court in Claremont, in the west of Johannesburg, every day is lived with the fear that the next emergency could be their last.

The nine-storey municipal-owned apartment block, which residents say was condemned as structurally unsafe nearly a decade ago, is still home to about 100 to 150 families, including children, pensioners and chronically ill people.

Last week, DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis and the party’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, visited the building, where residents described years of neglect, unanswered pleas for help and deteriorating living conditions.

“What I saw at Maxwell Court is indefensible,” Hill-Lewis said.

This is a disaster like the Usindiso building fire waiting to happen

—  Geordin Hill-Lewis, DA leader

“This building is not fit for people to live in and has been formally condemned as structurally unsafe. Yet children, pensioners and vulnerable residents are living with fires, black mould, no water and no safe escape route. This is a disaster like the Usindiso building fire waiting to happen.”

He said the city had serious questions to answer.

“The city must explain how a building reportedly condemned a decade ago was allowed to deteriorate this far. This is what government failure looks like when it reaches people’s front doors. But Johannesburg is not beyond repair. The city can work again, but only with clean government, competent management and an absolute focus on the basics.”

For resident Vonnay Julius, politics matters less than surviving another day. “We don’t sleep because we don’t know if the building is going to collapse on us,” she said.

Julius has lived at Maxwell Court for 10 years. She says residents have repeatedly approached city officials, endured numerous inspections and pleaded for intervention, but nothing has changed.

“It has been condemned for 10 years. We’ve had constant site visits, but today we still don’t know what is going to happen to us.”

The building has 60 flats spread over nine floors. Residents say some units have no geysers, the lift is stuck between floors, and the only staircase left accessible shakes beneath their feet.

“There are children here, senior citizens and unemployed people. These living conditions are unbearable for any human being,” said Julius.

Residents also endure frequent water outages and rely on a communal water tank that is periodically filled by municipal trucks. “When the water truck arrives, everybody rushes because you don’t know when you’ll have water again,” said Julius.

The recent fires have left many traumatised.

Julius remembers neighbours banging frantically on her door late one night. “They shouted, ‘Fire! Fire!’ When I opened the door, my entire flat was filled with smoke.”

She fled with her four-year-old son while relatives rushed from Westbury to salvage what belongings they could. “The firefighters told me to remove everything because it wasn’t safe.”

Residents say three fires have broken out in the building over the past month and that firefighters struggled to contain them because there was no water.

Julius says firefighters also warned her that the building’s lift posed a deadly risk. “They told me the lift is hanging by a thread. If it falls, you’re dead.”

The conditions have also affected her son’s health. He was admitted to intensive care after suffering severe breathing complications. “The doctor specifically told me that the area we are living in is not suitable for my son,” she said. “Must I lose my child before somebody listens?”

Residents insist they are not refusing to relocate. Instead, they accuse the city of offering accommodation that is little better than the building they are trying to escape. “We’re willing to move,” Julius said. “But don’t take us from one dangerous building to another.”

She said some of the proposed units also have cracked walls and are far from schools, clinics and hospitals. “Some of us are unemployed. Some have chronic illnesses. Our children are in schools here. You can’t just dump us somewhere else and expect us to survive.”

The uncertainty has left many residents living in fear after they were allegedly warned that the Red Ants could be brought in to remove them if they refused to sign relocation documents.

Frustrated by years of inaction, residents have lodged complaints with the South African Human Rights Commission and the public protector. For now, however, they remain in a building they believe is a tragedy waiting to happen.

“We’re not asking for luxury,” Julius said. “We’re willing to pay rent. We just want a safe place to live.”

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