Johannesburg's Speaker, Colleen Makhubele, said she still did not have a clear picture of what was happening at the Johannesburg Metro Centre building after it was evacuated last month.

The building hosts many of the 48 000 municipal employees, including the City leaders.

On 16 September, a fire caused by faulty transformers led to the closure of the centre after an evaluation of the building in Braamfontein found that Blocks A and B - as well as the wings and two parking levels - had to be evacuated after the fire. This is essentially the entire building.

The building has no electricity - and some municipal workers, including some councillors, still do not have access to their emails. This has affected service delivery.

In one case, the property valuation objections were meant to be finalised in mid-September but are now expected to be completed by 30 November "due to email issues."

FireOps SA fire chief Wynand Engelbrecht, whose private fire service attended to several city centre fires – including Usindiso - said he warned for years that the Johannesburg Metro Centre was a "fire death trap."

A report on the work needed to refurbish the building, which was meant to be released in September, was still being finalised.

Makhubele told News24 that a preliminary report of the building came last week, but she had not seen it, and the City was waiting for the final report.

Meanwhile, employees using the Metro Centre building are still working from home.

Makhubele said she was hoping to find out this week whether the council sitting could occur in the Constance Connie Bapela Council Chamber, a newly built wing of the metro building.

Otherwise, the October sitting, set for 31 October, will be held at the Brixton Multipurpose Centre, which the City owns.

Last month's sitting did not take place because the Multipurpose Centre was not available at such short notice, and other venues big enough to host the 270 councillors, staff, and visitors cost more than R1-million without catering, according to Makhubele.

At the time, Makhubele said the meetings would be held back-to-back in October - but, on Tuesday, she said she wasn't sure.

"I can't tell you if there will be an October sitting. If the report says we can do it in the [usual] chamber, we can [hold both sittings]. But nobody has answers for us. We just don't know. I've written to the City manager [Floyd Brink], and he hasn't responded," she said.

News24 understands that Makhubele has been asking for clarity since September.

Brink has not responded to phone calls or written queries on the matter.

Meanwhile, a briefing on the water crisis by Johannesburg Water on Friday ended with a slide showing an artist's rendition of what the refurbished metro building could look like.

The rendition has the high-rise and the council chamber but is wrapped by another multi-storey building that covers the space between these two buildings.

That space is an outdoor square with a gym and trees. It is supposed to feature various ponds, but it has been dry for many years.

News24 asked the City manager whether this was the final rendition, but there was no response.

But several well-placed sources said this was one of several renditions which had been seen by the council – albeit the latest.

The cost of the refurbishment is also in contention.

When the former mayor, Thapelo Amad, first brought up the issues with the building, he told News24 that it would cost R1-billion to tear down the Metro Centre and rebuild it. At the time, the reporter was told this amount was way over the actual cost, which nobody could give.

News24 understands there is a bid for a R2-billion refurbishment of the Metro Centre.