Parliament’s R2 billion refurbishment to begin soon

Parliament says it’s in the process of starting to refurbishing the old and new national assembly buildings that were gutted by fire in January last year.

It says it will work in partnership with other state institutions and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The Secretary to Parliament made the announcement during a media briefing in Parliament.

This comes as Parliament received an allocation of R2 billion toward rebuilding costs from Finance Minster Enoch Godonwana during his Medium Term Budget Police Statement last year.

Secretary of Parliament Xolile George says there are four areas that would be looked at in the implementation of this project.

“Firstly, the refurbishment of the Parliamentary Building, the Old Assembly Building, the Lycnh building and the National Assembly building. These are the ones that were gutted down completely in terms of the fire. This would also include what members have really raised with us to say as much as we cannot have access to this building, it’s now a secured site under investigations. And also its own structural integrity is not guaranteed, we left some of our items and valuables in that facility. How soon can we be able to negotiate to access it. We could not provide that answer, partly because we are not sure about the safety of movement of people in that building.”

George says access to the buildings would also help Parliament to respond to the concerns raised by the Auditor-General regarding the recording of assets.

“So one the key deliverable task would be about the removal of rubble that is contained in that enclosed buildings to make sure also that we can also be in a position as Parliament to determine if there is any assets as Parliament that can be salvageable in  that environment. So  part of that work would entail us receiving guided tour of the facility, designation and any pathways to access the building so that we could also respond to the Auditor-General’s  concerns expressed to us, to say that in your assess register, tell us if there are any assets that could still be saved and kept in your registers. If not, which ones can be removed. We would not offer that answer either.”

Parliament reconstruction process: Xolile George:

Process has started

The Group Executive for the Infrastructure Delivery at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Chuene Ramphele, says the process has started.

“We have just started the process of packaging the implementation plan for the whole entire areas that you have addressed. And as you said between now and March we will be putting together solid and concrete  plans to deal with the issue of procurement as well as best particularly to define the concrete timelines as to when we are really going to be in a position to  actually start and remove the rubble and the debris and also  beginning to have a sense of  when we are going to activate and start the detailed  design. And that could be a process that would be between now and March.”

A multi-disciplinary probe into the cause of the fire was conducted over the last year. This included internal and external investigations.

One of the investigations still under way was commissioned by Parliament’s Presiding Officers. The probe is focusing on among other things, possible security breaches.

George says the fire report is expected to be released soon.

“The fire report and any other investigation that was part of that as commissioned by the Presiding Officers and or audit committee of Parliament, all those reports will be ready by end of March.

George says the fire report will outline clear recommendations on what action and improvements should be effected.

Report on Parly fires expected soon 22 May 2022: