Joburg arsonist ‘has set fire to 11 houses over two years’

Police have confirmed that they are analysing a string of arson attacks on luxury homes in Joburg’s most expensive suburbs.

“At this stage we can confirm 11 cases with a similar modus operandi,” said Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili.

“These cases are currently being analysed by provincial detectives so they can be centralised at one level for investigation. They have not yet been allocated to a team. We will have all the details after analysis,” she said. She could not give a timeframe.

It has emerged that the suspected arsonist might have started his reign of terror as far back as two years ago.

A family in Athol told the Sunday Times their home was set alight in February 2020. The owners, who did not want to be identified, were away and their daughters and housekeeper were asleep in the house at the time. For four hours, the intruder prowled the house before setting fire to the main bedroom.

A description of the incident, given by the family, matches several others that have since followed: a brazen intruder spending hours living it up in the upmarket home, pilfering, snacking and dirtying the house before setting it on fire.

Security companies, private investigators, forensic detectives and insurance company investigators all said they are hunting for a lone perpetrator who has a specific way of operating.

Grant Schuster, structural project manager and fire claims specialist for Discovery Insure, said: “We have a claims validation process through which we picked up that there is an arsonist out there targeting specific houses — generally properties worth R10m and above.

Schuster handles all fire claims for the insurance house and has overseen four of the suspected arson claims, though he knows there are more cases lodged with other insurance company investigators that share patterns and methods.

“This guy follows a pattern. He strikes when people are away, he targets high-value homes in specific suburbs and moves in the top echelons. We have video footage of him and we know his build and height — that he’s athletic and strong.”

Schuster said the arsonist has an established modus operandi.

“He breaks in and spends a few hours in the sitting room — eating out of the fridge, tipping bottles of booze around, ramming food into the couches. In one case he took out a cooler box, peed in it and then filled it with food out the freezer. Then he moves into the private space, the owner’s sanctuary and generally starts a fire in the bedroom,” Schuster said, describing the acts as psychologically motivated. “He dirties the common spaces and destroys the private ones.”

Independent fire investigator Danny Joubert, who has looked into two of the incidents, said it is rare for a competent investigator to come up with an inconclusive cause of a fire.

“Fire is something that moves and breathes and exists until it finally dies. In the end it looks like blackened ruins, but that lifespan can be tracked. There is always enough evidence to show what happened.”

An estate agent who works in the Hyde Park and Sandton areas — who did not want to be identified because “it will end my career ”— said the arsonist was terrifying people and damaging the property market.

“I recently lost a R9m sale after I told the buyer that the house had been burnt. They pulled out,” she said.

But Wynand Engelbrecht, head of private fire-fighting operation Fire Ops based in Johannesburg, which has responded to many incidents, does not believe all of the cases are linked. “If any of these cases are linked to one guy, I think you will find he was paid by the owners so they can make an insurance claim,” he said, adding that many of his clients are terrified of being hit.

“I have clients who have asked me to park a fire engine at their home because they are going away for the weekend. The cost of that is about R18,000 and they are willing to pay,” he said.

But Schuster disagrees.

“These are not claims by people wanting to enrich themselves. The insurer has the right to determine how to settle the claim, the client cannot demand money.

“In most of the cases only part of the house was destroyed. In cases like that we get our contractor to go in and rebuild. The client then sits with an excess payment and they have to go and find alternative accommodation for six months or a year while their house is rebuilt.”