Riverlea school blaze an act of sabotage: Maile

Gauteng Education MEC, Lebohang Maile, says the torching of classrooms at Riverlea Secondary School appears to be an act of sabotage.

At least three classrooms, a laboratory and the school library were destroyed in the blaze, which broke out late last night.

Emergency Management Services (EMS) firefighters say they responded to the incident at the school at 7:26 pm.

The blaze has raised concern, as the school experienced a similar incident around the same time last year, when about 11 classrooms were damaged.

Police are investigating a possible case of arson.

Maile says preliminary reports point to criminality, noting a troubling pattern of incidents at the school.

“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 in the school, in the community, and it ends up affecting the school and we wanted to also make sure that we respond and resolve the infrastructure challenges immediately.”

“The officials of the department will immediately bring a structural engineer because there are classes which can be quickly renovated,” he added.

“We have advised the department against bringing temporary classrooms. We don’t think we need temporary classrooms when there are classes that can be renovated.”

Maile says the department is prioritising permanent repairs over temporary structures, despite ongoing infrastructure challenges and budget constraints in the province.

Maile says it will cost about R45 million to repair the school, adding that more than 300 learners have been affected by the torching of the classrooms.

The MEC has also called on the community to assist authorities in identifying those responsible for the incident.