Sunday, January 02, 2022
Flame inferno in Cape Town
South Africa’s parliament destroyed by fire
Dozens of firefighters have been trying to save what can be saved since early morning. But they cannot prevent the National Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa from suffering massive damage from a major fire. The parliamentary chamber “is completely burned,” says a spokesman.
The National Assembly in Cape Town was completely destroyed by fire. The flames that have raged since the morning had “completely burned” the seat of the MPs, said a parliamentary speaker in the afternoon. The fire is still not under control. The cause of the huge fire, which covered the entire parliament complex in clouds of smoke, is still unclear. A 51-year-old man was questioned in connection with the fire, police said. According to the Cape Town ambulance service, there were no injuries.
More than 70 firefighters had been fighting the blazing flames since the early hours of the morning, trying desperately to get the fire under control. The fire broke out around 4 a.m. (CET) in the oldest wing of the parliamentary complex and from there spread to other buildings. “The entire chamber in which the MPs sit is completely burned,” said parliamentary speaker Moloto Mothapo in the afternoon.
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. Cape Town has been the seat of the South African Parliament since 1910, while the government is based in Pretoria. In 1990 the then President Frederik de Klerk declared the end of the racist apartheid regime in the parliament in Cape Town.
The current President, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was still in Cape Town one 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 that morning. Ramaphosa attended tutu’s memorial service in the cathedral on Saturday.