A man was arrested after taking responsibility for starting a building Fire In South Africa 76 people were killed as he tried to get rid of the body of a person he had killed on behalf of a drug dealer.

The 29-year-old’s apparent confession came as a shock as he testified at an ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire that ripped through a downtown apartment building Johannesburg in August became one of the country’s worst disasters.

The man, whose identity was not released, said during questioning that he had killed another man by beating and strangling him on the night of the fire, according to South African media reports of the testimony. According to the reports, he then poured gasoline on the man’s body and set it on fire with a match in the basement of the dilapidated apartment complex.

He said he was a drug user and was ordered to kill the man by a drug dealer who lived in the building.

Police said later on Tuesday that they had arrested a man in connection with the fire after he admitted during the investigation that he was involved in the fire. The man faces 76 counts of murder, 120 counts of attempted murder and one count of arson, police said in a statement.

The investigation at which he testified was not a criminal case and his confession came as a complete surprise. The investigation is examining what caused the fire and what safety failures may have led to the deaths of so many people. He testified at the inquest because he lived in the building.

The body responsible for the investigation ordered that his identity not be revealed after his testimony, and a lawyer who led the questioning of witnesses said that the questioning should not be used against him because it was not a criminal case .

South African media referred to him as “Mr Robert Mulaudzi. More than 80 people were injured in the nighttime fire.

South African police said the man would appear in court soon, but did not give a date.

The fire drew the world’s attention to downtown Johannesburg’s long-standing problem of “hijacked buildings,” buildings that have fallen into disrepair, been taken over by squatters and abandoned by authorities. There are hundreds of them in the city’s old center, officials say.

The building belonged to the City of Johannesburg, but had been taken over by illegal landlords who rented the premises to hundreds of poor people desperate for housing. Many of the building’s residents were immigrants suspected of being in South Africa illegally.

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Emergency services officials said at the time that most fire escapes in the building were locked or chained that night, making the fire even deadlier. According to witnesses and health officials, many people jumped out of windows – some up to three stories high – to escape the inferno.

Some said they had to throw their babies and children out in the hope that the people below would catch them. Many of the injured suffered broken limbs and backs from jumping out of the window.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered an investigation into the disaster, which began in October by hearing testimony from rescue workers who responded to the fire in the early hours of August 31.

The acting head of Johannesburg’s emergency services told the inquest last year that the building was a “ticking time bomb” because it was overcrowded with people living in wooden structures while fire hoses and fire extinguishers had all been removed.

The police opened a criminal case in the days after the fire and declared the building a crime scene.