{"id":79,"date":"2016-05-17T00:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T22:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentnewsgrid.org\/wordpress\/?p=79"},"modified":"2016-05-17T00:00:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T22:00:37","slug":"anger-lingers-after-uj-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/2016\/05\/17\/anger-lingers-after-uj-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger lingers after UJ fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"zxx\"><span lang=\"zxx\">The University of Johannesburg\u2019s 1000 seater auditorium\u00a0was destroyed by a fire which has caused\u00a0an estimated R100 million in damages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">During the early hours of Monday morning a fire at the University of Johannesburg\u2019s Kingway campus destroyed\u00a0the 1000-seater main auditorium. \u201cAt about 01:40 a report came through saying there was a fire at UJ [University of Johannesburg], we responded to the scene and have since filed a case of arson,\u201d said the warrant officer in charge, Gordon Billing. According to SAPS, no witnesses have come forward and no arrests have been made at this point. A forensic services processing team arrived at the scene at about 11:00 and began investigations\u00a0to determine the source and type of fuel used to start the fire.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">\u00a0According to a press briefing given by deputy vice chancellor of strategic services, Mpho Letlabe, \u201cthe arsonists who caused an estimated R100 million worth of damage to the main auditorium of UJ will be found and jailed.\u201d Also destroyed were computer laboratories, including equipment used to conduct career assessment and guidance for students and prospective students. Nobody was injured but the building has effectively been \u201cgutted\u201d. In a statement released on Monday morning, UJ vice chancellor Professor Ihron Rensburg vowed to prosecute the perpetrators as harshly as possible. \u201cWe will do anything in our power, and in co-operation with the authorities, to track these criminals down, prosecute them, and send them to prison for as long as possible,\u201d said Rensburg.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">\u00a0Rethabile Ntshinga, chairman of the UJ SRC, told Wits Vuvuzela that he is disappointed in the institution. \u201cThe university has been spending millions on external security forces but they failed to capture the fire in time and as a result the auditorium burnt down,\u201d said Ntshinga. According to the Ntchinga, there are about 50 security guards patrolling at night, some are stationed right outside the auditorium, their response time is \u201cpathetic\u201d. Erastus Boshoff, the second student to tweet images of the burnt auditorium, told Wits Vuvuzela, that he arrived at the building after his tutor, who lives on campus, said she had smelt smoke near the building. \u201cI was shocked to see the building had burnt down. Why would anyone do something like this? I don\u2019t understand?\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">Midyear exams, scheduled to take place in the computer laboratories, and a number of graduations ceremonies due to take place in the auditorium have been directly affected by the attack. According to Letlabe, alternative arrangements, which will \u201cinconvenience\u201d students and graduates alike, are being made. Nevertheless, the university will remain open and continue with business as usual. \u201cWe will not give this small group of criminals the pleasure of disrupting teaching, learning or research at UJ,\u201d said Rensburg.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">Written by: Kyle Oberholzer and Nadia Omar<\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">Originally published:<a href=\"http:\/\/witsvuvuzela.com\/2016\/05\/17\/anger-lingers-after-uj-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">witsvuvuzela.com\/2016\/05\/17\/anger-lingers-after-uj-fire<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"zxx\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Johannesburg\u2019s 1000 seater auditorium\u00a0was destroyed by a fire which has caused\u00a0an estimated R100 million in damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[15,16,18,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}