A shocking confession turns the case of a fatal fire in South Africa upside down

It was time, the witness said, to tell the whole truth about the terrible things he had done.

Just before he was due to testify this week at an inquest into one of South Africa's deadliest house fires, he pulled an investigator aside and said he had to change his story. He was the one, he said, who caused the fire that engulfed a five-storey building in central Johannesburg on August 31.

As he spoke, Sithembiso Mdlalose, 30, sobbing, told a roomful of stunned listeners that he had strangled a man on the ground floor of the overcrowded, abandoned home and set the body on fire.

Following that admission during the investigation, Mr Mdlalose had been arrested by the police, who are conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the fire, and are accused of 76 murders. But as he made his first appearance in criminal court on Thursday, much confusion and mystery remained surrounding this shocking twist in a tragedy that has drawn international attention to the terrible living conditions of thousands of people in buildings in one of Africa's wealthiest cities.

Although Mr Mdlalose's confession is inadmissible during the investigation, prosecutors said, his confession will strengthen the criminal investigation.

Mr Mdlalose, who said he lived in the building, seemed to appear out of nowhere before the lawyers and activists working with some of the building's former residents, many of whom largely said they did not know him. He was one of several witnesses scheduled to speak at the inquiry, which began in October.

Before appearing at the inquest, he gave a handwritten statement to police that contained much less than what he ultimately admitted. In his statement, obtained by The New York Times, Mr Mdlalose admitted he was one of several criminals selling drugs in the building, but suggested others had killed and set fire to the first victim.

Mr Mdlalose gave that statement to police about a month ago. A South African Police spokeswoman declined to comment on why he had not been arrested earlier.

Advocates for some victims fear Mr Mdlalose's impressive testimony this week could obscure the wider failures that led to the fire, which the inquiry is intended to uncover. Testimony so far has shown that the illegally occupied city-owned building was fraught with fire hazards that officials failed to consider, said Nigel Branken, an immigrant rights activist who works with fire survivors.

“The concern I have is that the city says, 'Oh great, we have someone,' and they can meet their obligations,” Mr. Branken said.

“The city is responsible for more deaths than the man who started the fire,” he added.

Mlimandlela Ndamase, a spokesperson for Johannesburg's mayor, urged caution before rushing to judgment.

“Let us wait until the investigation is completed and then we will understand what responsibility or liability rests on whom,” he said.

This week, guilt and fear led Mr Mdlalose to confess to setting the fire, said Nomzamo Zondo, executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute, who attended the inquiry hearing. Another person who was present but not authorized to comment said Mr Mdlalose had pushed aside one of the people responsible for presenting evidence and said he wanted to tell the truth.

Mr Mdlalose, whose age police said was 29 earlier this week, addressed the inquiry behind closed doors out of fear that the criminals operating in the building would kill him, but lawyers and activists who were in the room then told his story . .

He testified that he had been working for a drug dealer when he was called in to tackle a man who had gotten into an argument with the dealer, the observers said. Mr Mdlalose, who said he was high on methamphetamine at the time, said he found the man already tied up, with a bag over his head, in a room in the building.

He beat the man until he was unconscious and bloody, and it was only when he removed the bag that he recognized the man, he said. Panicking that he would be identified if the man survived, he told the inquiry, strangled him with his bare hands, then doused the body with petrol and set fire to the room to conceal his crime.

In his earlier written statement to police, Mr Mdlalose admitted to beating the man along with others. He said in that statement that the man, who was left slumped in a chair, died from his injuries. He and his accomplices poured gasoline on the man's body and around the room but left without setting it on fire, the affidavit said.

At the public inquiry, Mr Mdlalose said he decided to be honest when someone who saw him carrying the petrol into the building persuaded him to hand himself over. That witness testified at the investigation a day earlier.

In court on Thursday, Mr Mdlalose spoke as a criminal defendant, dressed in a faded khaki parka with lint in his hair, barely whispering as a magistrate explained the lengthy prison sentence he now faces for multiple murders, attempted murder and arson.

Phindi Mjonondwane, a spokeswoman for the prosecution, said prosecutors were open to a settlement.

For his own safety, Mr Mdlalose will remain in a private cell, said his lawyer, Dumisani Mabunda. The investigation could take years, he warned, adding that his client was willing to cooperate with police.