{"id":55471,"date":"2026-04-09T03:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=55471"},"modified":"2026-04-09T03:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:18:31","slug":"police-confirm-sabotage-fire-guts-riverlea-secondary-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/04\/09\/police-confirm-sabotage-fire-guts-riverlea-secondary-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Police confirm sabotage after fire guts Riverlea Secondary School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>The blaze erupted on Tuesday night, ahead of the return of pupils and staff from the Easter holidays.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Police are investigating a case of arson following a devastating fire that ripped through Riverlea Secondary School, leaving a trail of destruction.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze broke out at the school on Tuesday evening, just a day before learners and teachers were to return to the school.<\/p>\n<p>Three classrooms, a laboratory, and the school library were gutted by the fire. This is the third fire at the same school.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sabotage\">Sabotage<\/h2>\n<p>Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile, who visited the Riverlea Secondary School on Wednesday, said the series of fires at the school is concerning.<\/p>\n<p>Maile said a preliminary report from the police stated that the fire indicated it was an act of sabotage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a criminal activity. It\u2019s not for the first time, I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve 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\u2019s this one that happened yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that is concerning, because there\u2019s a pattern, but there\u2019s also a problem of crime, not just here at the school in the community, and it ends up affecting the school,\u201d Maile said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4413788\" style=\"width:538px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Police-confirm-sabotage-after-fire-guts-Riverlea-Secondary-School.jpeg 1280w, https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riverlea-Secondary-School-1200x899.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riverlea-Secondary-School-768x575.jpeg 768w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Police-confirm-sabotage-after-fire-guts-Riverlea-Secondary-School.jpeg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\"\/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Police-confirm-sabotage-after-fire-guts-Riverlea-Secondary-School.jpeg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4413788\" style=\"width:538px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Police-confirm-sabotage-after-fire-guts-Riverlea-Secondary-School.jpeg 1280w, https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riverlea-Secondary-School-1200x899.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riverlea-Secondary-School-768x575.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Picture: The Citizen\/Nigel Sibanda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-challenges\">Challenges<\/h3>\n<p>Maile said every school has its own challenges, but his department has to guarantee and make a commitment that there must be a bare minimum standard in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn every school, there must be learning and teaching, and that\u2019s why our interest here today was to ensure that that learning and teaching takes place, and we will be failing if we don\u2019t condemn this criminal act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an act of cowardice. This is an act of heartless people, and these are criminals. There\u2019s no other way of explaining, and that\u2019s 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\u2019t be, and it shouldn\u2019t be easy to attack or burn a public institution as important as a school,\u201d Maile said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Riverlea-Secondary-School.mp4\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Video: The Citizen\/Nigel Sibanda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-repairs\">Repairs<\/h3>\n<p>Maile confirmed the department will prioritise permanent infrastructure repairs rather than relying on temporary classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA structural engineer will be brought in to assess the damage, with some classrooms expected to be renovated within days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe 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,\u201d Maile added.<\/p>\n<p>Maile warned that Riverlea Secondary High School is currently operating far below its intended capacity despite ongoing placement shortages across Gauteng.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Police #confirm #sabotage #fire #guts #Riverlea #Secondary #School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The blaze erupted on Tuesday night, ahead of the return of pupils and staff from the Easter holidays. Police are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55473,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471\/revisions\/55473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}