Mystery around arsonist inside locked church

THE minister at the helm of the historic District Six Anglican church that was petrol bombed last month has revealed there is an unsolved mystery about the attack – how an arsonist could have gained access to the locked premises.

Father Austen Jackson disclosed to Weekend Argus that police had found no signs of forced entry at the church doors and no broken windows.

He said he was “mystified” as to how the fire, caused by a petrol bomb, could have been started in the undercroft of the church when all the doors and windows had been locked.

Jackson said staff left the church early on the day of the petrol bombing, Wednesday, September 27, because students from CPUT were protesting in the vicinity.

According to Jackson, the church has 21 doors but only one of these can be unlocked from the outside.

“The person must have had a key”, said a baffled Jackson, who took over the reins at the church in March last year following the death of Father John Oliver.

Church warden Leslie Apol- lis said that although there had been differences of opinion within the congregation relating to Jackson’s tenure, the fire could not have been an inside job since “nobody in the parish would attack the church”.

“Most of the parishioners are 50 years and older and I do not believe that anyone here would do that,” said Apollis.

Lukhanyo Matinise, 20, was arrested near the church minutes after the fire alarm was triggered and police claim he was found with a petrol bomb in his backpack.

He is out on bail of R2 000 and is to appear again in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court in January.

However, Jackson questions whether Matinise was already in custody by the time the fire broke out in St Mark’s.

The reception room of the 130-year-old city landmark was partially destroyed.

Judge Siraj Desai, in his capacity as chairperson of the District Six Museum, has called on CPUT management to “teach the students the history of the land the church and campus are built on”.

The insurance assessors are yet to assess the fire damage.