Torque-IT employees and students were evacuated this morning following a phone call to the company alleging a bomb had been placed in its Rivonia offices.
The call, received by the company at 11:20am, appears to have been made by a man who checked first that he was through to Torque-IT. Staff members immediately evacuated all employees and students and informed the management of the surrounding buildings that a bomb scare had been received.
Police arrived an hour and forty minutes later.
Sources within the company reveal that while students were allowed to go home, employees had to remain until police clearance had been received for their departure. The search by members of the South African Police Services' dog unit took approximately one hour to determine the scare was a hoax.
Speaking outside the Rivonia offices, Torque-IT executive chairman Mthunzi Mdwaba said the scare had a significant impact on the business.
"This is negatively affecting our business: not only do we have training commitments to fulfil to our students, we are also busy with our financial year-end," he explained.
The company has said that it will find time to make-up the training time lost; however, the training facility is fully booked until the end of the year and so additional resources will be required to fulfil this commitment.
Several motivations and possible perpetrators for the bomb scare were discussed among employees. These included students, employees, pranksters and people hoping to ransack the building while deserted.
An employee notes that an unknown group of people appeared to be moving against the stream of evacuees, and were later seen loitering in the back of the building. This sparked conjecture that the group may have hoped to vandalise or steal the company's IT equipment.
Employees returned to their desks at 2pm. Early reports revealed that nothing had been stolen or misplaced. A police investigation is under way.
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