A police docket has been opened into a burglary at the SA Press Association’s Pretoria office at the weekend, days before it will shut down, the agency said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Computer motherboards and hard drives were stripped and taken on Sunday, Sapa’s IT manager Munetsi Chiunda said.<\/p>\n
The rest of the equipment was not stolen. Chiunda said it had since been moved to the Johannesburg office for safekeeping.<\/p>\n
Chiunda arrived at the office on Sunday after a journalist discovered the break in, and found equipment and furniture had been moved around.<\/p>\n
There were visible signs of forced entry on one of the doors. The thieves tried to remove the screws from the lock of the second door, but failed.<\/p>\n
“It appears as if they gained entrance using the fire emergency door,” he said.<\/p>\n
Sapa’s editor Mark van der Velden said there was something unusual about the burglary.<\/p>\n
“Generally, Sapa’s IT equipment is so old and slow it’s hard to believe any ordinary burglar would want to steal it.<\/p>\n
“The fact that the burglars took time to dismantle computers inside the office, and then took only the hard drives and motherboards, is very strange.”<\/p>\n
He hoped police would investigate and arrest the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
Sapa will send its last story at midnight on March 31.<\/p>\n
Media24 to launch Sapa-replacement news service<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n