Suspect arrested over South Africa building fire that killed 77
Al Jazeera
A 29-year-old man told an inquiry of his involvement in starting the fire on August 31, 2023.
South African police have arrested a man suspected of starting the fire that killed dozens of people in a building in downtown Johannesburg last year.
Police confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, a day after the 29-year-old suspect told an inquiry into the fire that he was involved in starting it.
The man is expected to appear before a Johannesburg court “soon” on charges of arson, 77 counts of murder and 120 counts of attempted murder, police said in a statement cited by the Reuters news agency.
The blaze on August 31, 2023, ripped through the five-storey Usindiso building in Marshalltown in Johannesburg’s inner city.
The building, which was once an apartheid-era “pass laws” office and later a women’s shelter, was then “hijacked”, or taken over, and used for illegal housing.
