Cause unclear – South Africa’s parliament building is completely destroyed after a major fire

For many hours, South Africa’s parliament in the tourist metropolis of Cape Town was on fire on Sunday. The fire broke out around 4 a.m. (CET) in the oldest wing of the parliamentary complex, which was completed in 1884 and has several wood-paneled meeting rooms. More than 70 firefighters tried desperately to get the fire under control. The seat of the MPs was “completely burned” by the flames that have raged since the morning, said a parliamentary spokesman for the AFP news agency on Sunday afternoon.

The fire initially broke out at the rear of the building complex that houses the Old Assembly Chamber and the National Council of the Provinces and a few hours later it spread to the building of the National Assembly, in which the parliament sits, said Patricia de Lille, the minister of the Public Works and Infrastructure Province. Video footage showed thick black columns of smoke rising from the building.

The roof of the old plenary hall had collapsed, while some walls of the government complex had large cracks, it said. The Parliament building is home to many national artifacts. It is still unclear whether these have also been damaged, said a member of the city security committee, JP Smith. According to the Cape Town ambulance service, there were no injuries. A 51-year-old man was questioned in connection with the fire, police said. The cause of the fire remained unclear on Sunday; Investigations have been initiated.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was still in Cape Town the day after the memorial service for the world-famous human rights activist and retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died a week ago, spoke of a devastating event. “The Archbishop would have been shocked too, because this is a place that he prayed for, that he supported and saw as a refuge for our democracy,” said Ramaphosa in front of the cameras. The parliament is only a few meters away from St. George’s Cathedral, in whose mausoleum Tutu’s ashes were buried on Sunday morning. Ramaphosa attended tutu’s memorial service in the cathedral on Saturday.