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Ramokgopa visits burnt Joburg building

Firefighters on a crane
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Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa is visiting the burnt Johannesburg building which housed her department.

Ramokgopa had to cut short her overseas trip to Hong Kong, where she was attending a conference of the World Federation of Medical Managers since Tuesday.

Three firefighters were killed following the blaze, which started on the 23rd floor of the Bank of Lisbon building, on Wednesday.

The fire has since been extinguished.

After landing at O.R Tambo International Airport, Ramokgopa headed straight to the Johannesburg CBD to the scene.

She is taking stock of the extent of the damage and how this will impact on her department’s ability to continue rendering services to communities.

She says an assessment is being conducted to establish what was damaged during the fire in order to minimise disruptions at health care services.

Ramokgopa says work is also under way to secure a building to accommodate staff from the burnt building.

Roads surrounding the building are still closed to traffic.

Firefighters are still monitoring the building to ensure the fire doesn’t reignite.

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