Social development office set on fire
ELECTRONIC documents and files belonging to the Eastern Cape social development department’s SASSA offices in Mdantsane NU1 were destroyed in a fire yesterday morning.
The Dispatch visited the scene and was met with smoke emanating from burning tyres at the entrance gate of the premises.
Mdantsane police spokesman Captain Nkosikho Mzuku said a case of arson was opened for invest
This is the second arson attack on properties occupied by the department of social development in a week.
Last Wednesday the social development department’s Buffalo City Metro nerve centre situated in Oxford Street was torched.
Police, however, yesterday would not speculate if the two cases were linked.
“The cause of fire [in Mdantsane] is unknown at this stage and no arrests have been made yet. Investigation continues,” Mzuku said.
Eastern Cape social development head Stanley Khanyile said the office which houses their IT and main computer server system was burnt during working hours.
Khanyile described the arson a “a major inconvenience” and said the incident occurred just days after the department fended off a national strike by employees affiliated to the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
“The server which stored electronic documents containing information about non-profit and nongovernment organisations and youth centres have been destroyed. “We are still establishing the extent of the damage,” Khanyile said.
He said the torched office served the whole of Mdantsane area and the surrounding areas.
“The destruction of the infrastructure is going to have a huge impact on service delivery because in the meantime we are unable to get to know the electronic records of the non-profit and non-government organisations including youth centres,” Khanyile said.
He said they were working closely with police to find the perpetrators.
Khanyile partially put the blame on striking employees.
Workers affiliated to Nehawu have been on strike demanding they be paid a rural allowance, permanent employment for social worker graduates and general benefits among other things.
“Formally there is no strike by Nehawu at the moment because the strike ended last week.
“Although the strike has ended, the issues are still being addressed through internal structures of the bargaining council,” Khanyile said.
“We are disappointed that there has been another arson at our offices in Mdantsane immediately after our offices were burnt in East London.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that these two incidents are linked. We do suspect that whoever was responsible for destroying those manuals records in East London are now targeting the electronic records stored in the server in Mdantsane where [they] are kept.
“We cannot say conclusively who is behind this although we do have our suspicions,” Khanyile said.