South Africa

Newsflash

Third police station in Western Cape torched – 250 dockets go up in smoke

Third police station in Western Cape torched – 250 dockets go up in smoke
Damage caused by a suspected arson attack on the Ravensmead Police Station. Photo: Supplied

Police in the Western Cape are investigating a case of arson after an early-morning inferno on 21 April gutted the Ravensmead detectives' offices, destroying around 250 criminal dockets and an internal server.

This is the third arson attack on SAPS premises, the other two were at Bellville and Klapmuts earlier this month. The Ravensmead building has since been declared unsafe.

Western Cape SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut confirmed to Daily Maverick the fires at Bellville and Klapmuts and added that “policing and the investigation of crime have not been affected by the incident” [at Ravensmead].

Damage caused by a suspected arson attack on the Ravensmead Police Station. Photo: Supplied

Tensions in the SAPS have been running high with threatened go-slows and strikes by members unhappy with Minister of Police, Bheki Cele’s announcement in March of police promotions dating back to 2011/2012 and that had resulted in a backlog of 69,219 promotions.

At a press conference, Cele said that the intended purpose of “addressing the long overdue promotions of eight years was aimed at improving the morale and well-being of our members, with the ultimate goal of impacting effectively and efficiently to service delivery”.

A fire also took place at the Bellville police station. Photo: Supplied

Traut, confirming the fire to Daily Maverick added “we urge that the media refrain from speculating on the motive at this sensitive stage of the investigation. Detectives are busy probing the circumstances, and we need to give space for the investigation to take place.” DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.