City and SANParks meet to discuss Rhodes Memorial fire

21 April 2021

The City of Cape Town’s Fire Services will support SANParks in concluding its investigation into the fire that broke out on Sunday morning.

 
The City and SANParks met early this morning and had a preliminary discussion on the fire that devastated Cape Town on Sunday and which continued until Tuesday. While the fire is largely contained, fire crews remain vigilant for any flare ups.
 
‘I want to once again acknowledge and thank the many role-players involved in responding to the fire and all those who assisted. By working together, we were able to respond as quickly as possible, prevent loss of life, and support each other with the different skill sets required in responding to emergencies such as this one. Capetonians are truly resilient and I applaud our residents, fire fighters, emergency personnel and everyone involved in responding to this fire. Thank you.

‘SANParks manages the Table Mountain National Park, and I am glad that we could have this meeting this morning. I look forward to working even closer together. We will be meeting again in the coming weeks to see how we can strengthen the way we work to better prevent or respond to these types of fires in future,’ said Mayor Plato.
 
‘We met with the City today to thank the Mayor and Alderman Smith for the swift response from the City’s Fire Services on Sunday morning. Within minutes of our phone call to them, they had dispatched choppers. We will meet with the City again and host a joint media briefing once our investigative report is concluded in two weeks,’ said Fundisile Mketeni, SANParks CEO.
 
SANParks has appointed an independent forensic investigator to help identify the cause of the fire. It is estimated that the report will be finalised in the next two weeks.
 
‘It is important to establish the cause of the fire, and to identify any other factors that may have played a role. The City will work closely with SANParks as well as the SAPS in this regard. As with any big incident of this nature, there are many questions, and a lot of speculation, and we ask the public to allow the investigation to run its course,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
 
 
End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office