Police confirm sabotage after fire guts Riverlea Secondary School [VIDEO]

Police are investigating a case of arson following a devastating fire that ripped through Riverlea Secondary School.

The blaze broke out at the school on Tuesday evening, just a day before pupils and teachers were to return.

Three classrooms, a laboratory, and the school library were gutted by the fire. This is the third fire at the same school.

Sabotage

Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile, who visited the Riverlea Secondary School on Wednesday, said the series of fires at the school is concerning.

Maile said a preliminary police report indicated the fire was an act of sabotage.

“It’s a criminal activity. It’s not for the first time, I’m sure they’ve told you by now, this is a third incident. The first one happened in 2007, and there was another one last year, 2025, and there’s this one that happened yesterday.

“So that is concerning, because there’s a pattern, but there’s also a problem of crime, not just here at the school in the community, and it ends up affecting the school,” Maile said.

Challenges

Maile said every school has its own challenges, but his department has to guarantee and commit to a bare minimum standard being in place.

“In every school, there must be learning and teaching, and that’s why our interest here today was to ensure that that learning and teaching takes place, and we will be failing if we don’t condemn this criminal act.

“This is an act of cowardice. This is an act of heartless people, and these are criminals. There’s no other way of explaining, and that’s why we want to urge members of the communities who might have seen something to cooperate with the agents of law enforcement. We need to hunt these criminals down, and we need to bring them to book. It can’t be, and it shouldn’t be easy to attack or burn a public institution as important as a school,” Maile said.

Repairs

Maile confirmed the department will prioritise permanent infrastructure repairs rather than relying on temporary classrooms.

“A structural engineer will be brought in to assess the damage, with some classrooms expected to be renovated within days.

“We have advised against bringing in mobile classrooms when there are existing structures that can be repaired. Even if it takes a few extra days, it is a more sustainable solution,” Maile added.

Maile warned that Riverlea Secondary High School is currently operating far below its intended capacity despite ongoing placement shortages across Gauteng.