Mayor: Congested pipes could be CBD blast culprit

Any of the water, gas and electricity pipes “congesting” Johannesburg’s underground infrastructure could have caused Wednesday’s explosion.

This is according to Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, who was speaking on SAfm.

At least 48 people were confirmed injured and taken to hospitals around the city centre. One death has been reported.

Gwamanda said the incident was “indeed a tragedy”.

“Voluntary evacuation is taking place. The department of human settlements is reviewing the stock that we have for temporary relocation, because the area is unsafe and we do not want to find ourselves in a situation where there is a secondary incident.

“The department is also doing occupational assessment and assisting with [evaluating] the integrity of the infrastructures to determine if the foundations of the buildings have been affected, so we can respond efficiently,” Gwamanda said.

It was suspected that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, but Egoli Gas said it did not believe its pipes caused the explosion.

“We had specialists come and assess the pipeline managed by Egoli Gas and they confidently assured the city it was a leak in one of the valves they detected and not Egoli Gas’s pipeline,” said Gwamanda.

“The infrastructure underground in the inner city is congested. We have water, electricity and gas pipes, and any of those pipes due to pressure could have caused this kind of explosion”.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, who visited the scene, said the cause of the explosion is still unknown, but he received a preliminary report from Egoli Gas on what it suspected might have caused it.

“Egoli Gas believes it is unlikely the explosion in Johannesburg CBD, Bree Street, was caused by a gas pipeline or leak. Our network has experienced no pressure loss, which indicates the gas pipelines are intact. Our customers in the area continue to receive gas uninterrupted,” said Egoli Gas.

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