Cape Town - Before Thursday’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) which will be held in City Hall, again, Parliament has for the second time this year promised to release details of the rebuilding project.
The promise comes more than a year after a blaze ripped through Parliament’s Old Assembly building, damaging part of the New National Assembly and four months after Treasury set aside R2 billion for the purpose.
Parliament’s secretary Xolile George on Tuesday said there would be a “scheduled media briefing next week” on the issue.
George said work had been done since the October announcement by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana that Treasury had allocated R2bn to start the reconstruction and restoration of Parliament.
“There will be a scheduled media briefing next week to advise South Africans on where the work of Parliament is in the undertaking of this mammoth task.”
Last month, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the fire, Parliament said it would share details of the rebuilding programme and the project time frames “next week”, but no announcement was forthcoming.
MPs yesterday spoke about their worries over the delay in getting the project started, despite funds being available.
Al Jama-ah Party leader Ganief Hendricks said: “There is a strong push to get (Department of) Public Works to rebuild Parliament as soon as possible, but the delay is because many want to share the spoils.
“My concern is prices will be inflated by consultants and heritage people who will rip us off instead of reducing their prices for the national good.”
DA Chief Whip Siviwe Gwarube said: “No work has been done. No investigation has been initiated, as far as I know and really Parliament is using meeting in the Good Hope chamber as a stop gap measure.”
Gwarube said the party would soon act on its pledge to approach the courts to force Parliament to find an alternative venue.
“With the R2bn from the Treasury last year, we need to start seeing some work being done on the precinct.”
FF Plus MP Philip van Staden said his party had warned in November last year that the lack of an effective maintenance programme for government buildings was concerning and that fire at the National Assembly was an example.
