News24 reports that Gauteng Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland says the largely unaddressed fire safety risks at the Johannesburg High Court are a 'life-or-death" situation.

His decision to publicly appeal for the government to urgently address the fire safety crisis at the court comes after repeatedly trying and failing to ensure that the fire risks were addressed. "There are hundreds of people who work in this building every day, never mind the hundreds who come here as professionals or witnesses or whatever the case might be. And there’s at least a moral responsibility on me for the safety of people in the building," he indicated. An 11-page City of Joburg fire inspection report in April 2022 found that: “This building does not provide a safe environment for the occupiers/users anymore. In case of a fire the safe evacuation of occupiers/users is not guaranteed. In addition, in case of a fire it will be unsafe to send any operational firefighters into the building because the fire doors that serve as protection of openings and division areas in the emergency routes, division areas, smoke control and required fire installation systems (smoke detection systems, gas suppression systems) do not comply anymore”. The report issued an instruction that all the contraventions identified had to be addressed and remedied “on or before 25 April 2022”. While the court’s fire extinguishers have recently been re-serviced, none of the other fire risk contraventions identified in the report have been addressed. Public Works Minister Sihle Zikalala has now reportedly instructed his department to work with the justice department to respond to the immediate safety compliance challenges at the court.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Karyn Maughan and Jan Gerber at News24 (subscriber access only)

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