Parliament could pay up to R1m a day for sittings of the National Assembly should it go ahead with plans to use the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) as its temporary base until its chamber, which was gutted by fire, is repaired.
This is according to impeccable sources in parliament with intimate knowledge of discussions taking place between the leadership of the national legislature and the management of the CTICC. Parliament is scrambling to find alternative accommodation to house plenary sessions as it will take several years for its chamber to be restored.
Other options for parliament include returning to the Cape Town City Hall, where President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his state of the nation address (Sona) on February 10, but the costs would essentially remain the same as those related to the CTICC. Cape Town's city council chamber has been ruled out as too small.
National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her executive management are under pressure from various quarters, including several opposition parties, to return the National Assembly to physical sittings.
The parties argue that the current hybrid arrangement of online and in-person sittings is weakening MPs' capacity to effectively exercise oversight on cabinet ministers and government officials.
Well-placed officials in the higher echelons of parliament told the Sunday Times this week that moving sessions of the National Assembly from the only available chamber in the parliamentary precinct, the Good Hope chamber, to the CTICC is projected to cost the taxpayer R950,000 a day or R4.7m a week.
This could see parliament spending as much as R28.5m should the deal be sealed with the CTICC, as sittings of the National Assembly have been scheduled for the next six weeks.
The Good Hope chamber is not big enough to accommodate even the 298 MPs who were physically present at the Sona last week.
Among the cost drivers are:
- Translation infrastructure to accommodate the 11 official languages;
- Broadcasting services with the capacity for hybrid sittings for MPs and ministers who can't be in Cape Town;
- Catering, cleaning and security services and general conferencing systems; and
- Paying the CTICC's municipal services and property rates and taxes. It would not charge parliament any rent.
Acting secretary to parliament Baby Tyawa told a meeting of the National Assembly's programme committee (NAPC), which decides on the internal arrangements of the legislature among other things, that she was due to meet the management of the CTICC on Friday for further negotiations.
Parliament's head of communications, Moloto Mothapo, confirmed to the Sunday Times that it is considering moving sittings of the National Assembly outside the parliamentary complex.
“With the progressive relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, parliament is indeed looking at longer-term options to increase the physical presence of members at parliament, and at a viable and affordable alternative to the Good Hope chamber,” said Mothapo.
“Various options will be considered by the presiding officers and leaders of parties, and we're hopeful that any option that would be decided on would be practical, financially sensible and help parliament to intensify execution of its constitutional obligation,” he said.
The CTICC had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to print despite acknowledging receipt of questions from the Sunday Times.
If we are to move to other venues to enable all [400 MPs] to be part of physical sessions, it's going to have very serious financial implications
— National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
The matter was the subject of intense discussion at the NAPC meeting this week, where Mapisa-Nqakula warned that there would be “serious financial implications” to gathering all 400 MPs under one roof.
“I do want all of us to keep it at the back of our minds that, whatever the option, beyond the parliamentary precinct, if we are to move to other venues to enable all of us to be part of physical sessions, it's going to have very serious financial implications,” she said.
“It doesn't matter if you talk the CTICC or continuation at the city hall or the chamber which was offered by the city ... but I do want members to think through these issues. If at any given time we take a decision to move to the CTICC, we will have to firstly pay for the rates on a monthly basis, number two we will have to pay for all the services which will be rendered there. We don't have the figures, but the estimates were way beyond what we had paid at the city hall.”
Opposition parties were unmoved, telling the meeting that MPs need to return to Cape Town as their oversight role is being undermined under the current hybrid operational model.
“We've got to be very careful about the fact that the business of parliament is being curtailed somewhat by working the way that we are working,” said DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube.
“Yes, it was useful during Covid but the reality is that we're not exercising our full powers and we're not getting the full value of what we should be getting ... there's issue around public participation in our sittings.”
The UDM's Nqabayomzi Nkwankwa expressed a similar view.
“The virtual system has worked to a large extent but it has, over time, lessened the effectiveness of parliament as an institution that is supposed to hold the executive to account. There are quite a number of challenges which present themselves when you use the virtual platform to hold members of the executive to account,” said Nkwankwa.
Jack van der Lecq, the architect of the National Assembly chamber, last month indicated that it would cost “hundreds of millions of rands” or even R1bn to rebuild the ravaged chamber. It was also projected that it would take several years to return the horseshoe-shaped chamber to its former glory.
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