Bomb experts detonated several explosives while a police team continued to search the old Drill Hall in Braamfontein for live explosives on Friday, police said.
Inspector Amanda Roestoff said a team of 25 police bomb explosive experts were searching the site after a live mortar bomb was found on Wednesday afternoon.
Roestoff said five or six Italian mortar bombs were discovered on Wednesday and a few more on Thursday morning. It was speculated they may originate from World War II.
The site, housing military barracks which supplied regiments throughout the Anglo Boer South African War, the Bambata Rebellion, and regiments to suppress the miners’ strikes of 1913, 1914 and 1922, is currently being turned into a heritage site and community centre.
The cache of ammunition was discovered by workers preparing trenches.
Police have found 12 different types of explosives and 276 firearms. The firearms were taken to a local police station for safekeeping and will be destroyed later.
The streets around the site, on the corner of Twist and Plein, were cordoned off and the ammunition was ”deactivated” through controlled explosions.
According to the City of Johannesburg website an underground rifle range and limb moulds are some of the previous discoveries made on the site of the historic building, including more mortar bombs.
Neglected, and providing homeless people with temporary shelter, the Drill Hall burnt down in 2002.
Roestoff said police were in constant contact with the SA National Defence Force and the construction workers and that all necessary safety precautions were taken. – Sapa