 A view of the South African Parliamentary buildings following the fire. | |
| Date | 2 January 2022 |
|---|---|
| Time | 05:00 SAST (03:00 UTC) |
| Venue | Houses of Parliament, Cape Town |
| Location | Cape Town |
| Coordinates | 33°55′37″S18°25′12″E / 33.92694°S 18.42000°E |
| Cause | Arson |
| Suspects | Zandile Christmas Mafe |
The 2022 Parliament of South Africa fire was a major fire at the parliamentary complex in Cape Town, South Africa.
On 2 January 2022, just after 05:00 am (SAST), the City of Cape Town's Fire & Rescue Service were notified of a fire at the parliamentary complex. The fire started on the third floor of the National Council of Provinces building and spread to the office space and the gymnasium, before spreading to the National Assembly. [1] [2]
By the following morning, fire services personnel were still damping small hotspots in the complex. [3] During the afternoon on 3 January, a fire broke out again on the roof of the National Assembly building. [4] [5]
The fire severely damaged the new National Assembly building. Offices and the gymnasium in the old National Assembly building were destroyed, and some floors suffered water and smoke damage. [6]
Despite extensive damage to the complex buildings, important works of art and heritage were reportedly intact. [7]
A 49-year-old male suspect was arrested on 2 January by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), colloquially known as the Hawks. [8] [9] The suspect is currently facing charges of arson, housebreaking, and theft under the National Key Points Act, and was due to appear in court on 4 January. [10] After a brief appearance in the Cape Town Magistrates' Court, the suspect Zandile Christmas Mafe was remanded into custody until 11 January, pending a bail application and further investigation of the circumstances of the fire. [11] The prosecution revealed he has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The state wants him committed to a mental institution for 30 days observation to decide whether he is fit to stand trial. [12]
Initial reports stated that the sprinkler system had not functioned correctly, [13] protection services staff were not on duty, [14] and the CCTV system was not being monitored in the time running up to the start of the fire. [15]
On 6 January 2022, the City of Cape Town released a preliminary report based on observations from the fire services. [16] [17] This report confirmed that the National Assembly sprinkler valve system had not been serviced since 2017, and was closed at the time of the fire. It also found that fire doors were latched open, which aided the spread of the fire. [18]
On 7 January 2022, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces Chairperson Amos Masondo revealed in a statement that President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA) would be held at the Cape Town City Hall on 10 February 2022. The subsequent Debate on the State of the National Address and the President's Reply will also take place at the venue. [19] [20] The SONA was attended by 300 Members of Parliament and 70 guests in order to comply with COVID-19 regulations. [21]
On 10 January, Mapisa-Nqakula announced that National Assembly sittings, including Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Budget Speech in February, will be held in the Good Hope Chamber. The Good Hope Chamber is one of the oldest meeting rooms of Parliament. It was the meeting place of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope from 1854 to 1885. The chamber has a seating capacity for 170 persons and allows 70 persons under COVID-19 regulations. [22] [23] [24]
On 29 January 2022, the State alleged that Mafe confessed to starting a fire in the parliamentary building. According to an affidavit given to investigators after his arrest and read out to the court, Mafe said that it was "the right thing" to set parliament on fire as he wanted to prevent Ramaphosa from delivering his annual SONA. He also demanded Ramaphosa's resignation, the release of Janusz Waluś as well as R1,500 for unemployed South Africans. [25]
The Secretary of Parliament, Mr Xolile George, stated the rebuilding of Parliament will take R2 billion and approximately 2 years to complete. [26] In March 2023, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) was appointed as the Project Lead. [27] The full restoration is to be completed by 10 September 2025. Members of Parliament will receive offices and new equipment to complete their work as soon as possible, according to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Rubble removal is predicted to be completed by 31 July 2023 and repairs on the Old Assembly is slated to begin on 20 June 2023. [27]
The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature; under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The current twenty-seventh Parliament was first convened on 22 May 2019.
The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation system where half of the members are elected proportionally from nine provincial lists and the remaining half from national lists so as to restore proportionality.
Cape Town City Hall is a large Edwardian building in Cape Town city centre which was built in 1905. It is located on the Grand Parade to the west of the Castle and is built from honey-coloured oolitic limestone imported from Bath in England.
Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Speaker of the National Assembly since August 2021. She was a cabinet minister from 2004 to 2021, including as Minister of Defence and Military Veterans between June 2012 and August 2021. She was an elected member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) between 2002 and 2022 and is a former president of the ANC Women's League.
The Houses of Parliament of South Africa are situated in Cape Town. The building consists of three main sections: the original building, completed in 1884, and additions constructed in the 1920s and 1980s. The newer additions house the National Assembly, and the original building houses the National Council of Provinces.
Thandi Ruth Modise is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans. She was previously the Premier of the North West from 2010 to 2014, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces from 2014 to 2019, and Speaker of the National Assembly from 2019 to 2021.
General elections were held in South Africa on 8 May 2019 to elect a new President, National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. These were the sixth elections held since the end of apartheid in 1994 and determined who would become the next President of South Africa.
Alan Richard Winde is a South African politician and businessman. He is the 8th and current Premier of the Western Cape, having held the position since 2019. He has been a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament since 1999. Winde is a member of the Democratic Alliance.
Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize was a South African politician who served as Minister of Higher Education and Training and Minister of Home Affairs under President Jacob Zuma. A member of the National Assembly and national executive since May 2009, she was Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities when she died in September 2021.
The 27th South African Parliament is the sixth Parliament of South Africa to convene since the introduction of non-racial government in South Africa in 1994. It was elected in the general election of 8 May 2019 and consists of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The National Assembly contains 400 members, while the National Council of Provinces contains 90 members. It was formally opened by President Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address in a joint sitting on 20 June 2019.
The Second Cabinet of Cyril Ramaphosa was formed on 29 May 2019 after President Ramaphosa was inaugurated for his first full-term as President of South Africa following the African National Congress's victory in the 2019 South African general election. The newly appointed ministers were inaugurated the next day by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria. The cabinet is the third cabinet in Africa to be made completely gender-equal in its composition and the first gender-equal cabinet in South African history.
The 2021 South African municipal elections were held on 1 November 2021, to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It is the sixth municipal election held in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, held every five years. The previous municipal elections were held in 2016. On 21 April 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the elections will be held on Wednesday, 27 October 2021. It had been recommend by Dikgang Moseneke to delay the municipal elections until 2022. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) requested the Constitutional Court to support the date postponement. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) supported the date postponement while the Democratic Alliance (DA) was against the postponement of the date. The Constitutional Court dismissed the application to postpone the date until 2022, ruling that they had to take place between 27 October and 1 November. On 9 September 2021, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that the elections would be held on 1 November.
The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans is one of the portfolio committees of the National Assembly of South Africa. It oversees the operations of the Department of Defence and Military Veterans and the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans as well as multiple statutory entities, including Armscor, the Castle Control Board, the Defence Force Service Commission, the Military Ombud, and Reserve Force Council.
Mzwanele Nyhontso is a South African politician who is the president of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. He is also a member of the National Assembly of South Africa.
Tandi Mahambehlala is a South African politician who has served as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism since 2021. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she served as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation from 2019 to 2021. Mahambehlala was Deputy Minister of Communications between 2017 and 2018. She has been a Member of Parliament since 2014.
Events in the year 2022 in South Africa.
Sanele Sethembeni Zondo is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal. He is currently a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Inkatha Freedom Party. Zondo also serves as the Deputy National Chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade.
The 2020 Phala Phala Robbery or Cyril Ramaphosa Farm Burglary or Farmgate Scandal was a burglary of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s private Phala Phala game farm near Bela-Bela, Limpopo, South Africa. The incident occurred on 9 February 2020 in which an indeterminate amount of cash was stolen. Arthur Fraser, an ally of former President Jacob Zuma alleged that around 4 million US dollars of undeclared foreign currency had been stolen. However, subsequent reports indicated that the amount stolen was $580 000 Ramaphosa denied any wrongdoing, and sought judicial review of a report by a panel appointed by the South African Parliament released in 2022 that accused him of "serious misconduct". Opposition parties and MPs have slammed investigations into the source of the cash, and have accused the South African Reserve Bank of a providing claptrap report and systemic coverup. The Democratic Alliance intends to pursue the courts to further investigate the matter.
The following lists events that happened during 2022 in Southern Africa. The countries are those described in the United Nations geoscheme for Southern Africa.
Events in the year 2023 in South Africa.