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Survivors and locals walk past the gutted block after the blaze at the Usinidso building, which left hundreds homeless.
Sthembiso Mdlalose, who is accused of deliberately setting fire to the hijacked Usindiso building in 2023, says he lied about starting the fire so he could have food and shelter in prison.
Mdlalose, who lived at the building, is appearing in the High Court in Johannesburg sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court building.
He previously confessed to starting the fire but later retracted his statement, claiming he was coerced into making the confession.
Mdlalose claims that his boss, who also lived in the hijacked building, ordered him to buy petrol but he refused and instead went to a nearby tavern.
He says that when he returned, he found his boss with a gallon of petrol, who then poured it over a man in the room and set him alight following an earlier argument.
Mdlalose says he regrets lying.
“The only crime that you my lord you can convict me on is perjury, that is lying under oath, that’s my only crime, I never killed anyone. Sometimes when I sit back with this confession I admire myself as to how good was I to be able to convince even the magistrate himself that I might have been the one who started the fire because I just wanted a new life because prison was going to provide me with shelter and food because I couldn’t face it anymore to live in the streets.”
On the 31st of August this year, survivors of the fire gathered outside the building to commemorate those who lost their lives.
The survivors are also calling for justice.
