Moving the South African Parliament from Cape Town to Pretoria is not a consideration despite the extensive damage to the building caused by Sunday’s fire, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Pemmy Majodina said on Monday.
Majodina said this was because moving parliament to the administrative capital city “was not a priority while the country was facing a high unemployment rate, inequality and underdevelopment.”
“The debate about moving parliament to Pretoria has financial implications, and it has constitutional implications,” Majodina said.
She added: “If you look at the constitution, the seat of parliament is in Cape Town. Therefore, we would have to start by amending the constitution if we want to move parliament to Pretoria.”
Majodina said she thought it was “good for us” that there were two distinct seats of government – the administrative seat in Pretoria and the legislature in Cape Town.
She said she was confident parliament’s work would not be derailed by the fire that gutted some of the legislature’s key buildings and expected Members of Parliament to continue with their oversight and lawmaking work, even if it meant “meeting on a field.”
“We are going to make sure everything happens, even if it means meeting on a field. We are going to do that. We are public representatives. We were not elected to sit on the benches. We were elected to work for the people,” she said.
Following the fire at Parliament, the country has been having a public debate to move the House to Pretoria to save money for both travel and accommodation – not to mention allowances for cabinet ministers, MPs and their members of staff.
Meanwhile, the country’s police crack unit, the Hawks, have arrested a 49-year-old suspected arsonist who will making his court appearance in Cape Town on Tuesday to answer arson and burglary charges.
NM/jn/APA