Fires at government institutions are a sad reality for SA

The historical city of Komani, formerly known as Queenstown, was in the news again this past weekend. The town hall in the city burned down.

The town hall building also houses the local municipality. The most tragic, yet comical, image on television as they flighted the news of the fire was that of a young man who was running back and forth between the burning town hall and a water point close by, bucket in hand, trying to put out the fire. Another concerned citizen was using an ordinary garden hosepipe to douse the flames with water.

The town’s only fire engine is out for repairs. It has been waiting for an engine since October last year. The building is said to be fourth in the Enoch Mgijima local municipality to go up in flames in the past two years. Komani was also in the news in October.

Then, the Lesseyton soccer stadium, which had been out on tender for R22 million, attracted the attention of the Hawks because of the alleged corruption that had accompanied the project. The estimated money spent on the project was about R3 million, but the city was charged R15 million.

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The report on the stadium project is not out yet and the building that houses the municipality that needs to put out the report burnt to the ground at the weekend. Corruption in the municipality is so bad that the stadium that was at the centre of the furore, with a price tag of R15 million, has no running water or electricity.

Are municipal buildings being deliberately burned down to delay investigations into corruption? There is no obvious answer to that question but it is very obvious who benefits from a fire to a municipal building. Why does Komani matter? Because the Komani town hall fire is not an isolated one. The most prominent fire that has been in the news
this year is the blaze that took down the National Assembly. And then there was the fire at Air Force Base Waterkloof.

There is no obvious link between all these incidents except that they are all happening at government institutions and causes of the fires are not immediately obvious. The saddest part of all the chaos surrounding the fires is that the “nine wasted years” made sure to leave the country not only with a hollowed out police intelligence structure, but that period left in place individuals who are willing to stand in the way of rebuilding those structures.

The result is a police intelligence vacuum that will cost the country billions in terms of burnt or destroyed infrastructure. The year 2022 is going to be a long one in political terms. The ruling party is involved in a 12-month presidential campaign which has, in the past, proven to be overly brutal, with a lot of collateral damage.

The battle to control what’s left of the ruling party will have many casualties and some of those might be historical buildings such as parliament or the Komani town hall. Opponents of one faction in the ruling party will demand that certain reports into corruption be expedited to get rid of rivals in the political race. The implicated faction will use the scorched earth policy to destroy evidence.

Sadly, burning down the whole country to hide evidence of corruption or to gain political power makes losers out of everyone, even those who appear to be the winners in the short-term.