Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) said it was not able to comment on the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital fire report because it had not yet seen it.
This announcement came after a Daily Maverick article on Sunday which reported that the cause of the fire was arson and could not have been an accident.
The information allegedly came from a leaked forensic report that was compiled a year ago, which recommended further investigation by the South African Police Service.
In a statement on Monday the department said following the article it had been inundated with media requests for comment.
“GDoH has unfortunately not seen the so-called report and as such the department is not in a position to comment on it. The media is advised to confirm with SAPS if they have indeed issued such a report and to whom the report was issued.”
Meanwhile, DA spokesperson Jack Bloom said he had asked acting Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko about the forensic report in the Gauteng Legislature a month ago.
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Nkomo-Ralehoko responded that police had concluded their investigations but the report was still pending.
She said:
In a statement on Monday, published hours before the GDoH statement, Bloom said the DA noted the report that the hospital fire was an act of arson rather than accidental.
“In my experience the premier’s office is the graveyard of investigations as they are never done speedily or made public, Bloom said.
“Poor excuses are given for the delay in releasing the four investigations into the fire at the Bank of Lisbon Building in September 2018.”
He expressed concern that the fire was started to “cover-up corruption in the storeroom where it started”.
“The fire damage has caused immense disruption and patients have suffered, including lives lost from delayed treatment.”
He said the opposition party would press for criminal prosecutions for implicated people.
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