JOHANNESBURG – The kind of files that were stored in the basement of the South African Revenue Service(Sars)’s Johannesburg office on Rissik Street, and whether they were digitally captured, are just some of the questions being raised following Wednesday’s fire.
The fire started in the basement of the seven-story building shortly after midday.
An employee told Eyewitness News that the basement was used to store hard-copy files and records.
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Sars Gauteng regional director Nathaniel Mabetwa said it was unlikely any files were completely destroyed.
“We’ve got enough records that are actually digitised, so we don’t necessarily have the paper-based approach that we used to have.”
But a Sars employee, who spoke to Eyewitness News at the scene on the condition of anonymity, was uncertain about whether the documents were, in fact, archived at the time of the fire.
Sweetness Chiya, who was in the building when it was evacuated, said they were told the fire started in the basement.
“They say the fire started in the basement where they store a lot of the files, but we don’t know how the fire started.”
Sbonelo Ngubo, who was also in the building when the fire started, claimed the generator could have been the cause.
“The smoke was coming from underground where there is the generator. Things started from the generator systems.”
The cause of the fire will be investigated.