Parliament fire | Chamber to reopen in three years, says Speaker

CAPE TOWN - Parliament will be open for business again in three years.

That's according to Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

The National Assembly was damaged by a fire in January 2022.

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Offices and the gymnasium in the old National Assembly building were completely destroyed.

Mapisa-Nqakula says while there are debates about whether to move Parliament, the building is a heritage site that must be restored.

"I can say definitely, in three years time, we will be inside the Parliamentary building. Why I'm saying this... the fact that there's a commitment now from the Minister of Finance that R2-billion should be allocated for this," she said.

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"The fact that he has started giving out allocation for this year, for us to do certain things. The fact that already on site now, we have a multidisciplinary team on how to restore Parliament.

"That's a heritage site, so it doesn't matter when we have debates in our little corner about whether Parliament should be restored or not, whether we should go back to that old building or not.

"The point is we have a heritage site that we need to restore," Mapisa-Nqakula said.