By Johnathan Paoli
A major fire has torn through the 11-storey iconic Botha Sigcau Building in Mthatha, leaving one of the region’s most important government hubs severely damaged and raising fears of widespread service delivery disruptions.
The blaze, which reportedly broke out on the fourth floor at about 7pm on Tuesday, engulfed the multi-storey building that houses more than 11 government departments, including health, education, agriculture and rural development, and other key provincial offices.
Mthatha fire services were dispatched to the scene and battled the blaze, but the cause of the fire remains unknown.
Reacting to the disaster, King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality mayor Goodman Nelani described the fire as a devastating loss for the municipality and the broader region.
“It is a sad day, and we have lost our landmark as the municipality. We have lost the major building which is hosting a lot of people that are working in this region, which will take government some time for us to stabilise the delivery from all the departments working in this building,” Nelani said.
He added that the destruction went beyond infrastructure, striking at the historical significance of the site.
“We have lost history. Something close to our heart. This building has been here since 1975. As a municipality we are concerned about the amount of work that needs to be done to address the situation and the service delivery that will be disrupted,” he said.
Nelani said preliminary information indicated the fire started on one of the upper floors before spreading rapidly.
“What we know so far is the fire started at the 4th floor, and moved up the building. The municipality responded early, despite being beyond the capacity we have as a municipality to respond,” he said.
He warned that the scale of the destruction would have immediate consequences for communities dependent on services housed in the building.
“The magnitude of the devastation is so dire. We have different departments servicing the home region here in terms of responding to day-to-day lives,” Nelani said.
Among the most pressing concerns is the disruption to education services, with the building playing a central administrative role in the region.
“The education department covers the surrounding regions. The exams which have been written at present and the work that has been done in terms of that has been disrupted. Same with agriculture, SARS, social development,” he said.
Nelani indicated that restoring services would be a long and difficult road.
“It means before we can talk about moving and being able to service again, we have to look for offices,” he said.
Provincial government officials, including the Eastern Cape Premier Oscar, are expected to visit the scene on Wednesday, as the Department of Public Works prepares to issue an official statement on the incident.
Authorities have urged the public to avoid the area while emergency services continue operations and investigations into the cause of the fire intensify.
This follows scrutiny in recent weeks after the provincial Department of Public Works failed to pay for electricity, forcing a shutdown that left workers stranded outside and unable to access services.
The building is named after the first president of the Transkei Bantustan government and disputed amaMpondo traditional leader, Botha Manzolwandle Sigcau, and was also the site of Transkei Defence Force leader Bantu Holomisa’s coup against the illegal government of Kaiser Daliwonga Mathanzima on 30 December 1987.
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