The Potchefstroom city council expressed sadness on Friday over the destruction by fire of a historical Afrikaans church in the town.
Mayor Maphetle Maphetle said the council extended its sympathy to the congregation of the NG (Moedergemeente) Church after the building was gutted by fire on Wednesday night.
The church, on the corner of Nelson Mandela Drive and Beyers Naude Road, was built in the 1860s.
Spokesperson for the city Kaizer Mohau said Naude — an Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress — had been a minister of the church in his earlier years.
He said the mayor will meet church leaders to extend his condolences and to see if the city can help rebuild the church. Only the walls of the church were left standing. ”Everything inside was made of wood.”
Superintendent Koos Degenaar said the cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical fault in the ceiling.
Feelings have been running high in Potchefstroom over the past few months over the renaming of street signs and proposals to rename the city to Tlokwe.
Four students appeared in court on Monday for allegedly removing street signs. The accused, three women and one man, were arrested on Sunday night after they were found with street signs in their vehicle.
Potchefstroom’s proposed name change does not sit well with some residents who have been removing new signs and dumping them in the Vaal River or defacing them.
The outcome of a court case opposing the name change is still pending. — Sapa