Stellenbosch student, 19, fights burns after fire set under his bedroom door
A housemate saw a woman slide burning paper beneath the door, and the first-year student is now in hospital with burns down one side of his body as his former girlfriend faces attempted murder and arson charges.
A 19-year-old Stellenbosch University student is in hospital with burns down one side of his body after a fire was set in his bedroom at an off-campus residence in Cloetesville, and his 19-year-old former girlfriend has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and arson.
The fire broke out in his bedroom on the morning of Sunday, 18 October, at a privately owned house on Lackay Street. A housemate told TimesLIVE that he saw a woman apparently trying to slide burning paper beneath the student’s bedroom door, and heard cries for help moments later.
As CapeTown ETC reported on 24 October, the housemates and other residents ran to the room but found the door locked. One of them kicked it open. They found the first-year student lying beside a burning mattress and put the fire out before he was taken to hospital.
Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel FC van Wyk confirmed to TimesLIVE that cases had been opened at Cloetesville police station. The woman appeared in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 20 October, and her case was postponed to Monday, 26 October for a bail application.
The circumstances of the fire remain under investigation.
Stellenbosch University said the injured student was receiving hospital treatment and that the house is privately owned and not managed or operated by the institution. Staff from its Commuter Student Communities Unit visited him in hospital and met other residents at the house to offer support. The university said it was concerned about the emotional effect on those affected, including the students living there.
For the students in that house, the practical worry has already arrived. His housemates are asking whether he will recover in time to write his upcoming examinations.
Cloetesville sits directly against the Stellenbosch campus, and a large share of the university’s students live in private rental rooms and houses in the town’s surrounding neighbourhoods rather than in university residences. Those tenants fall outside the institution’s housing arrangements, and support in a case like this runs through the university’s commuter student structures rather than a residence head or a house committee.
The case returns to the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 26 October, when the bail application is expected to be heard.
