Bomb scare at Sol Plaatje statue

Published May 6, 2015

Share

Kimberley - An anonymous call reporting a bomb at the Kimberley Civic Centre brought business to a halt as the staff at the Sol Plaatje Municipality had to be evacuated from the building.

This saw the municipality’s offices shut down for nearly three hours with hundreds of employees evacuated and left milling about on the lawns outside the building, while police officers from the police bomb squad conducted a thorough search.

During the search, a bag at the base of the Sol Plaatje statue provided plenty of drama when a fully-kitted member of the bomb disposal unit publicly inspected its contents before giving it an all-clear.

Eventually, municipal employees were allowed to return to their duties shortly before 11am with management viewing the evacuation as a time-consuming but necessary exercise.

According to municipal manager, Goolam Akhawaray, the entire evacuation had taken mere minutes while the search for explosive devices would prove far more time consuming.

“We are taking every precaution,” he said shortly after 9am Tuesday morning.

“Fortunately we have a good evacuation plan with marshals on every floor. This meant that all staff members were out within four minutes. It is a big building with lots of rooms so the search will take some time.”

Executive Mayor, David Molusi, was also left waiting for the police to give the all-clear, saying that the mere threat of a bomb was damaging because no lives could be put in harms way regardless how remote the risk might be.

“Incidents like this are never a good thing,” Molusi said. “Today might just be a scare but every threat on society has to be taken seriously. You never know when it could be the real thing.

“We are going to have to look at ways of keeping this type of risk to an absolute minimum and we have to get to the bottom of this.”

Both the mayor and municipal manager questioned whether there could be a link between Tuesday’s threat and the bomb scare at the Upington Airport on Monday morning.

Earlier this week, an anonymous call to the major cargo airport also forced a search and evacuation before the presence of a potential explosive device could be ruled out.

However, police spokesman, Lieutenant Olebogeng Tawana, said that there was no connection between the two bomb scares and that Tuesday’s incident had seen numerous police units working together.

“Police units which were on the scene at the Sol Plaatje Municipality after the bomb threat was reported Tuesday, included the K9 unit, bomb experts, the detective unit and corporate communication. There is no link between Upington and the Civic Centre bomb threat.”

At a press conference following the Kimberley bomb scare, municipal spokesman, Sello Matsie, said that Tuesday’s reports on the bomb scare in Upington may have given somebody the idea to call the Civic Centre but he was confident that police would conduct a thorough investigation to rule out all possibilities.

Matsie added that this was the first bomb scare that he could recall in his 14 years’ service with the municipality and while the evacuation of up to 800 employees could always have gone more smoothly, the fact that no injuries were reported remained an ideal outcome.

“Our switchboard received a call at about 8.45am with the male caller making a threat to the effect that there was a bomb in the building,” said Matsie.

“We get calls from angry members of the public but not like this. We have been advised not to say too much about what exactly the caller said or any other information other than the fact that there was a bomb scare and a criminal investigation is underway.

“Personally, I think it was a prank. There was an article in the media this morning and there are often copycats when something like this happens.”

Diamond Fields Advertiser

Related Topics: