Firefighters have been monitoring the South African Broadcasting Corporation's studios in Auckland Park after a fire there on Thursday morning.
“The fire started at studio six last night at around 8pm and fire-fighters were not able to contain the fire,” Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Niel Rooi said.
“There is a lot of smoke and they are busy damping down the building. We will not leave until we are certain that the fire is out.”
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the fire broke out at Isidingo production studios. Isidingo is a soap opera that plays on SABC3 on weekdays at 7.30pm.
“No one was injured as everyone had already left. We will be assessing the situation this morning,” he said.
“The cause of the fire as well as damage assessment will be done this morning. We are not alarmed as programmes will continue to run as normal.”
SABC acting chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng told Morning Live the fire would cost the public broadcaster tens of millions of rands.
“As the SABC we are very shocked. As you know financially we are not sound,” he said.
“This is something that we don’t know how to handle but we will get there.”
Kganyago said they were not sure if the fire had spread to other studios. – Sapa