Treasury working with Parliament in rebuilding national legislature

THE National Treasury has been working with Parliament on its rebuilding after it was gutted by fire in January with serious and extensive damage caused to the national legislature.

Senior official in the National Treasury, Mampho Modise said yesterday that Parliament was still conducting an assessment of the damage and the cost.

She said once this was completed they would be in a position to determine how to move forward.

Modise said they had met with senior officials from Parliament and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

The assessment would determine the extent of the damage.

Zandile Christmas Mafe was arrested in January after the fire and faces charges of housebreaking with intent to commit terrorism, arson and theft. Mafe remains in custody at Pollsmoor prison and will be back in court on May 12.

Briefing MPs yesterday, Modise said Parliament was looking at the short- and long-term solution to the problem.

The fire damage to the National Assembly chamber forced Parliament to hold the State Of the Nation Address in the Cape Town City Hall.

It was still considering other venues for use while the rebuilding was under way.

“In terms of the funding for Parliament, we have had a lot of engagements with Parliament, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and National Treasury and there are different proposals.

“But Parliament is still to do the assessments and the cost of this. They are doing that but we are working with them to make sure that when the assessments are done we can easily assist in how we move forward in terms of the funding.

“They have different options on how we look at the short-term, and link the short-term to the long-term rebuilding.

“We have had a meeting with the acting secretary to Parliament (Baby Tyawa) and the Director-General of the Treasury (Dondo Mogajane) when they highlighted what they require from us and we are working with them on that,” said Modise.

She said she did not think the funding of Parliament would require special appropriation.

“This is an event that was not foreseen and we can definitely look at that when we do the unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure applications (that) are going to come in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS),” said Modise.

The minister of finance will deliver the MTBPS later this year.