Smoke clears, but no answers in Phikwe court blaze
Olefile Serokolo | Wednesday September 27, 2017 14:48
Defence Justice and Security Minister, Shaw Kgathi yesterday visited the site to assess the damage, as court officials scrambled to recover digital information in order to rebuild the case files.
According to chief magistrate, Kamogelo Mmesi, the fire completely destroyed child maintenance case files as well as computers in the wing. Criminal and civil files were also destroyed and at present no services are being offered to the public. The revenue office was also razed down, halting payments.
“Trials will however proceed as usual because what we normally do is to capture proceedings through the online Court Record Management System which acts as a backup.
“We are going to reprint all the files which were destroyed and proceed as usual, though it might take time for them to be printed.
“Our wish is that the destroyed wing would be refurbished even within three weeks’ time, funds permitting, so that other services could again be given to the public,” Mmesi said.
Although investigations into the incident are continuing, answers as to the cause are still in the wind, authorities told Kgathi. Mmesi said police and firefighters’ investigations would soon report whether any foul play was involved in the blaze.
The fire was first spotted on Saturday at about 3pm by a passerby who alerted security guards at the building. Firefighters battled to put the blaze under control, but by the time they did, it had already destroyed files and other physical assets.
Fireman 1 at the Selebi-Phikwe Town Council’s Fire Department, Philip Barulaganye said firefighters were able to stop the blaze from burning out of control.
He said the fire was powered by strong winds that swept through the town that weekend.
“It’s still difficult to figure out what could have caused the fire,” he said.
“At present, we can reveal that there was not much damage to the other offices except discolouration on some walls due to smoke.”