Cape Town - Parliament’s presiding officers have declared the Cape Town City Hall as ready to host the State of the Nation address.
National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, after inspecting the Cape Town City Hall, said they were satisfied with security and seating arrangements, which were co-ordinated by the security cluster, Department of Public Works and Parliament officials.
However, the DA pre-empted the planned presiding officers’ walkabout at City Hall with a statement, in which the party announced its lawyers served Parliament with a letter of demand for the presiding officers to search for a suitable venue for the National Assembly to conduct its business while the reconstruction of the Parliamentary precinct continued.
DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said it was more than a year since the blaze damaged the Houses, and yet “little to no work has been done” to get to the bottom of what caused the fire. She said they had yet to start the process rebuilding the Houses.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced in last year’s medium-term budget policy speech an allocation of R2 billion for the reconstruction of Parliament.
“We are still none the wiser about the timelines of that process,” Gwarube said.
“More pressingly, the National Assembly has been relegated to convening in the Good Hope Chamber, a venue which accommodates 30% of its total members.
“The proceedings are done in a hybrid fashion, a measure we have long argued is ineffective for the work of Parliament in the long run.
“If the timelines that Public Works and Infrastructure has presented are true, it means this will be the arrangement for the next four years.”
She said the DA’s lawyers’ letter of demand argues that Parliament had had sufficient time to find a more suitable venue to conduct its business, but opted for the “costly and unsustainable” option to sit at City Hall.
Parliament officials recently said that they had budgeted R8m for the Sona, its debates and the Budget Speech.
Gwarube said: “The cost drivers of this bill are the hiring of ICT equipment every time the institution is meant to hold in person or joint sitting of the two Houses.
“This could easily be avoided by having had an alternative venue in which Parliament can procure its own ICT equipment for use over the next several years.”