It has been more than a year since a fire destroyed part of the parliament although repairs have not yet begun.
A January 2 fire left the National Assembly and the Old Assembly wing badly damaged, prompting Members of Parliament (MPs) to hold a session at Cape Town City Hall.
progress
Talk to friendship Saturday, the Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula noted that much progress has been made since the fire gutted the building after the National Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) expressed concern about the delay in finalizing the report to the fire.
“We have a Joint Standing Committee on Financial Management, regularly expected by the presiding officer and the secretary of Parliament to report on what is being done on this recovery issue.
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“A lot of work has been done … if [this was not the case] we will not talk about the money given by the Minister of Finance,” he said.
Last October, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R118 million to Parliament, which will be used to prepare the State of the Nation Address (Sona), Budget Speech and MPs’ offices.
Restoration
It was previously revealed that restoring Parliament would cost an estimated R2.2 billion, including furniture and IT systems.
R300 million will be needed to restore the Old Assembly building, while the National Assembly is expected to spend R1.9 billion on repairs.
According to Mapisa-Nqakula, there is no fixed time in the restoration process.
“We agreed that everything will be done in phases. The restoration of the Old Assembly building will take approximately 18 months and 42 months for the restoration of the National Assembly. This is an estimate, but the cost will be [around] R2 billion,” said the Speaker on Tuesday.
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Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo has since indicated that an update on plans to rebuild the damaged building at the facility will be provided this week.
“When the country marks the first anniversary of this fire, the officials of the chairman of the Parliament, the Chairman of the National Assembly and the chairman of the National Council of Provinces. [NCOP]later this week we will share the country’s details on the reconstruction program, project timeframes, and other relevant information at a press conference,” Mothapo said in a statement.
Alternative places
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) asked the government to find an alternative venue for Parliament.
The DA has argued that Cape Town City Hall is not big enough to accommodate all MPs.
“We consider this to be unacceptable,” DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said. friendship on Monday.
Gwarube asked why Parliament had not started its own investigation into the fire, adding that the DA was considering legal options on whether to hold the institution accountable or not.
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“You would think that an institution of this size has something as big as this. It basically destroys the building itself, it will be very quick to say think, let’s find out exactly what happened,” she said.
The chairman of the National Assembly council for the committee, Cedric Frolick previously said that the hosting venue outside Parliament would cost almost R100,000 per meeting.
“A three-hour session for the morning can easily run between R60,000 and R90,000 per meeting and that’s the pre-Covid rate I’m talking about,” Frolick said at the time.
Cape Town fire report
The City of Cape Town Fire Department last year issued a post-incident report on the fire.
The report states that the sprinkler valves in the National Assembly were last serviced in 2017.
The city said the hatch was closed and inoperable during the fire incident.
The report further stated that a fire door was opened which helped spread the fire.
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