CoJ wants gas explosion declared local state of disaster

City of Johannesburg manager Floyd Brink said on Wednesday that the municipality has mandated its Disaster Management Centre to finalise a report to declare the recent gas explosion in the central business district a local state of disaster. The report will be submitted to the Provincial Disaster Management Centre in the next seven days. Brink was addressing the media on the progress of restoration efforts in the inner CoJ, where he noted that the municipality had commenced processes of compiling the report to begin with the necessary legislated processes. “The declaration of the disaster is critical in order to allow us to assess the impact of the explosion on infrastructure and to cost the rehabilitation work required,” he said. Wednesday marked seven days since the explosion occurred on Lilian Ngoyi street, formerly known as Bree street, which tore through the road, and which claimed a single life and left 46 people injured and hospitalised. Brink highlighted that the CoJ had also assigned the Group chief financial officer to oversee a team to manage and oversee any procurement to facilitate its work in response to the disaster. He further stated that the mandate was to ensure that the City complied fully with legislated procurement rules and audits, as it procured services for the response effort. Meanwhile, on Monday Brink said the City’s preliminary investigations into the explosion pointed to an accidental leakage of natural gas into the service duct, reaching explosion concentration levels of 5%-15% and ignited by an unknown source. He said investigations would continue to try to locate the source over the next few days. “As you are aware, investigations are still inconclusive on the cause of the explosion and what may have ignited the gas or the source of the gas in the underground tunnels,” he added.