Today marks exactly three years since the National Assembly and nearby buildings were gutted by fire.
It took hundreds of fire emergency teams three days to completely extinguish the fire.
The destruction forced parliament to find alternative venues for the joint sitting of the two Houses for the State of the Nation Address and National Assembly sittings.
The City Hall was identified for sittings on an ad hoc basis, while the Good Hope Chamber within the parliamentary precinct was converted for regular National Assembly sittings.
Over R2 billion has since been allocated for the rebuilding of the gutted buildings and R118 million for unforeseen and unavoidable expenditures because of the fire.
According to parliament, some of the has since been used will be used for the reconstruction of the building and other projects.
“Capacity development, technical support, and implementation of infrastructure projects.
Refurbishment of the Old Assembly building, the link building, and National Assembly building.
Removal of the rubble to pave the way for detailed assessments to be conducted.
Remodelling 155 MPs’ offices.
Parliament will refurbish the fourth and fifth floors and redesign first, second and third floors of 90 Plein Building to create alternative office space for both Members and employees of Parliament,” read a statement from parliament.
In addition, parliament said this has yielded 155 offices for MP’s and offices for 1 000 displaced staff members, whilst providing temporary relief in office space during the restoration phase.
In a statement, parliament said the rebuilding and construction of a new building is earmarked to begin this year and will be completed in 2026.
Due to costs escalation to use the City Hall and renting a marquee, a Dome that was used during the former president Nelson Mandela’s funeral, will be erected as an interim chamber until the reconstruction has been completed.
The Dome has since been transported to Cape Town from the Defence Force storage facility in Pretoria, where it’ll be erected at the Niewmeester Parking Site within the Parliamentary Precinct.
“The Dome will serve as the temporal home for Parliament for the next 24 months whilst Parliament is being rebuilt.
The project of setting up the Dome is expected to take 24 days from 18 December 2024, which will be on time for the 2025 opening of Parliament and State of the Nation address.
The erection of this structure is set to save the state a lot of money in terms of accommodating Parliament in the next two years,” read a statement from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
Since the disaster, Zandile Mafe, was arrested on charges of housebreaking, theft, and arson, for setting the building on fire.
The Western Cape High Court has however since declared him unfit to stand trial and ruled that he be held in the hospital section at a correctional service facility.
