As many as 600 people called the squalid five-story building at 80 Albert Street in downtown Johannesburg home. They were South Africans who had made their way to Johannesburg from rural provinces, and migrants from countries like Malawi and Tanzania, all trying to eke out a living in the big city. They labored to pay rent to the illegal building’s slum landlords. Jamila James, 3: She almost escapedImageThree-year-old Jamila James rarely set foot outside the building because the streets were not safe, said her uncle, Moris Anamwala. She spent her days in a makeshift day care center on the fourth floor while her mother, Phatuma Anamwala, a migrant from Malawi, sold fruit and vegetables on a Johannesburg sidewalk.

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Persons: Jamila James, James, Moris, Phatuma Organizations: Albert Locations: Johannesburg, Malawi, Tanzania