A report by a senior SAPS forensic investigator has confirmed what many suspected: that the 16 April 2021 fire leading to the closure of Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and which has caused huge disruption to the provision of healthcare services in Gauteng, was set deliberately.
Eighteen months after the arson, the hospital is still not fully functional and its future is uncertain.
The report recommended further investigation by the SAPS but a year later it seems nothing much has happened.
In the aftermath of the fire, patients have lost their lives, doctors have given up and resigned and costs have run into hundreds of millions of rands. An inventory shows that medical goods worth R40m were in the storeroom where the fire raged, as well as a large amount of PPE obtained to protect health workers from COVID-19. All were destroyed.
‘Accidental causes excluded’ – report
The report was compiled by Captain Pravisha Ramsundar, a senior forensic fire investigator who, for a decade, has been part of the SAPS’s Forensic Science Laboratory, Fire Investigation: Chemistry Section, based in Pretoria.
An investigating officer from Hillbrow SAPS had made the initial request for a forensic fire investigation, and Ramsundar attended “the crime scene” on 28 April (12 days after the fire), 9 and 10 June and 6 and 9 July 2021.
In his sworn affidavit setting out his findings (dated 27 August 2021), Ramsundar said there were “no external suspicious observations” and he excluded various “accidental” possibilities for the fire, including:
Natural factors;
Electrical or lighting malfunctions;
A discarded cigarette; and
Containers of a chemical (Cidex OPA solution) that several witnesses claimed had been the source of the fire. However, Ramsundar found that “the product itself does not burn”.
On this basis, Ramsundar records: “Accidental causes could be excluded as the cause of the fire.”
Several discrepancies
He noted several discrepancies in what was reported by one of the CMJAH staff working in the storeroom who apparently witnessed the outbreak of fire. He records that, in his own expert deductions as to the original site of the fire, her evidence was “inconsistent with fire dynamics, growth, development and fire behaviour”.
He concludes: “Based on inconsistent fire information received during the interviews, the misdirection of the origin of the fire, the lack of a legitimate ignition source within Area A, and the fact that the audits in the storage facility were ongoing, it is thus imperative, for the investigating officer to investigate this matter further, thus, until such time, arson classified as incendiary cannot be excluded as the cause of the fire.”
Later in the report Ramsundar added: “The ignition factor bringing the ignition source in close contact with the fuel in an oxygenated environment and thus causing a fire may have been a malicious human behaviour.”
His conclusion is: “The cause of the fire was arson, classified as Incendiary.”
Staff affidavits
Also included in the SAPS report are affidavits from CMJAH staff who worked in the storeroom and witnessed the fire start – strangely, these were taken only in September 2021, six months after the fire.
Doctors and civil society groups have repeatedly called for updates on the investigation. However, it is not clear what has happened to the investigation since Ramsundar’s report more than a year ago.
During this time the hospital has continued to be plagued by corruption, sabotage and arson as a possible cause of a second fire in July that was quickly extinguished.
No official comment on arson report
Asked to comment on the report, Vuyo Mhaga, spokesperson for Gauteng Premier David Makhura said: “The Premier has not received any forensic report from SAPS. Therefore, we are not in a position to answer your questions.”
The CEO of the hospital, Gladys Bogoshi, referred our questions to the Gauteng Department of Health, which did not respond.
Although the spokesperson for the SAPS in Gauteng said: “I am doing my best to get information from the relevant department and unfortunately for now I am still struggling”, the information was not forthcoming.
Dr Aslam Dasoo, convener of the Progressive Health Forum (PHF), which convened the Open CMJAH Now campaign, says the PHF has initiated a comprehensive Promotion of Access to Information request for information about the investigation into the fire’s cause and the damage.
Professor Shabir Madhi, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University, said: “It is concerning that there has been no visible progress in apprehending those who were responsible.
“Considering the fracas surrounding the repairs at the hospital, now only expected to be completed in 2027, it is difficult not to speculate that the arson is somehow linked with tender opportunities that would have arisen in the restoration of the hospital, conservatively estimated to cost R1.2bn.
“In the meantime, more than a year later, the hospital is still not fully functional, there remains a backlog of treating life-threatening diseases – including delays in initiating cancer treatment, healthcare workers remain despondent, and training of future healthcare workers is being compromised.
“The impact of this immoral act on South Africans, unfortunately, affects mainly
those dependent on the public sector for healthcare.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Arson suspicion in second Charlotte Maxeke fire reignites concerns about its future
What really happened in the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital fire
Gauteng Health denies safety failures in Charlotte Maxeke's R40m fire