No insurance for fire-ravaged parliament, could cost R1bn to rebuild

The houses of parliament are not insured, meaning a repair and reconstruction bill that could reach R1bn will be footed by taxpayers.

Public works acting director-general Imtiaz Fazel broke this news to parliamentary chiefs and leaders of political parties as Cape Town firefighters ended their three-day battle to save the complex of buildings in the city centre.

In written responses to the Sunday Times on Friday, Fazel said the cost of insuring a R141bn state property portfolio of more than 82,000 buildings was unaffordable.

His revelation came as evidence of shortcomings in fire and security measures at parliament — parts of which date to the mid-1880s — continued to mount.

Security rosters seen by the Sunday Times show that since December 16, a skeleton staff was on duty for only 12 hours a day, between 8am and 8pm, with supervisors on standby at home. 

The man charged in the Cape Town magistrate’s court on Tuesday with arson, Sandile Christmas Mafe, is alleged to have climbed in through a window at 2am on Sunday, and the alarm about the fire was raised four hours later. No security officers were on duty at the time.

Mafe’s attorney, Luvuyo Godla, said his client was charged before investigators were allowed into parliament, and before Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety & security, JP Smith, said he suspected an electrical fault started the blaze. 

However, Smith said he would await the outcome of an investigation led by the Hawks’ “crimes against the state” unit.

“Presumably they have CCTV footage of this man … But if it weren’t for that, my guess would be [that the cause of the fire was an] electrical fault like last time and nonfunctional fire-detection and fire-safety equipment.”

He was referring to a previous fire in March last year. 

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis released an incident report from fire chiefs that did not address the cause of the inferno but pointed out several shortcomings firefighters encountered. These included:

• Fire doors, intended to stop flames spreading, being latched open;
• A sprinkler valve being closed when it should have been chained open;
• Failure to service the sprinkler system as scheduled in February 2020; and
• Outdated first-aid equipment and poorly ventilated emergency staircases.

Three fire-safety inspections before the state of the nation addresses in the past three years also listed infringements in parliamentary buildings, including the Old Assembly where last Sunday’s blaze started and the National Assembly, which was badly damaged.

Presumably they have CCTV footage of this man … But if it weren’t for that, my guess would be an electrical fault like last time

—  Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety & security, JP Smith

The parliament branch of the National Education, Health & Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) told parliament’s presiding officers on Friday that in light of the reports, members would not return to work until parliamentary buildings had been declared safe by "competent bodies".

Branch secretary Temba Gubula said in a letter: "It is patently clear that workers’ lives are not safe in parliament, and as a responsible union we can’t allow our members to work in such an environment." 

Out of about 1,300 parliament employees, just over 1,000 are Nehawu members.

Fazel dropped his insurance bombshell at a hastily convened meeting on Tuesday night  between National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and leaders of parties represented in parliament.

He was answering a question from National Freedom Party MP Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam, who said it meant other government programmes would have to be scaled back to fund repairs.

Fazel said in terms of Treasury regulations on the management of losses and claims “the state will bear its own damages and accident risks and be responsible for all claims and losses of state property”.

To rebuild parliament, his department will need to make an application through the annual budgeting process but he could not estimate the sum required.

“Our engineers and architects only gained access to the fire-damaged areas on Tuesday afternoon. This team of multi-disciplinary experts and professionals is busy with an assessment of the damages,” said Fazel.

Architect Jack van der Lecq, 82, who designed the National Assembly building in the 1980s and supervised its construction, said it had cost R32m at the time but would take “hundreds of millions” and possibly up to R1bn to repair.

Sources close to discussions about the way ahead said the department of public works and parliament might have to find the money from their baseline allocations, or finance minister Enoch Godongwana could announce a special allocation when he tables his budget next month.

DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube has called for a parliamentary inquiry into possible dereliction of duty by public works, the police and parliament, based on the findings of an independent investigation led by outsiders.

“What has been clear over the past week is that there were security and safety breaches from the side of parliament and its protection services, the department of public works & infrastructure and the police,” she said.

“We can’t have a scenario where any of these entities are investigating themselves. That is why the DA has, from the very beginning, called for an independent forensic investigation.”

With regard to security breaches, she said it was concerning that so far there had not been an account from the police or parliament’s protection service of what happened.

“Even by the speaker’s own admission, questions must be answered about how this was allowed to happen at a national key point,” she said.

Gwarube said it was worrying that parliament has not had a permanent head of security for close to five years, on top of not having a permanent secretary since Gengezi Mgidlana was fired for serious financial misconduct in October 2019. He had been suspended for two years before his dismissal.

“These vacancies must be filled urgently so that there can be proper accountability. We need to hold people accountable, and this is what a parliamentary probe and findings will allow us to do,” said Gwarube.

Asked about the safety assessments conducted by fire chiefs, the department of public works insisted that fire systems had been checked and functional.

Public works spokesperson Thami Mchunu said the reports on the National Assembly identified “minor concerns” about signs and a question on the status of the communication system for emergency evacuation.

For the Old Assembly, additional signs and fire panels and phones that were in need of repair were identified, he said.

“On receipt of these reports, the department initiates the necessary servicing and, once all servicing is completed, the department collects all certificates of compliance and servicing records and submits these to the provincial joint operations centre.”

Mchunu said the department's regional office confirmed this had been done ahead of the state of the nation addresses in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

He said fire systems were reset, checked and declared functional by contractors on December 21 after a widespread power cut in the Cape Town CBD.

Lwazi Nkolonzi, spokesperson for Nehawu, said the fire could have been prevented if the recommendations of a 2018 health and safety audit had been implemented.

This audit found parliament was not adequately prepared to respond to emergencies and accidents.

“There has been action on certain areas, but in the main there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Nkolonzi.

“If parliament had implemented the recommendations, a lot of health and safety issues would have been avoided. We could be speaking a different language.”