- A large fire that started on January 2nd Sunday morning at South Africa’s Parliament’s Old Assembly building, in Cape Town spread to the National Assembly Chamber burning down the entire National Assembly where parliamentarians sit.
- The Heritage property includes a structure completed in the late 1800s that houses the National Council of Parliament, the country’s upper house.
A large fire that started on January 2nd Sunday morning at South Africa’s Parliament’s Old Assembly building, in Cape Town, spread to the National Assembly Chamber burning down” the entire National Assembly where parliamentarians sit. The Heritage property includes a structure completed in the late 1800s that houses the National Council of Parliament, the country’s upper house.
South Africa’s Public works minister Patricia de Lille told the press conference that the National Assembly was still burning. It has been reported that the first and second floors of the Old Assembly building have been “completely gutted” by the intense blaze, while the third-floor roof of the Old Assembly caved in later. Steven Swart, the chief of the African Christian Democratic Party, lamented that the country is starting the New Year with a fire in the old assembly that seems to be spreading to the new assembly.
Cape Town has been frequently facing fires. Wildfires on the slopes of its famed Table Mountain had caused severe destruction recently. Last year, a wildfire spread to the University of Cape Town, gutting down the special collections library, that housed the most expansive collections of first-edition books, films, photographs, and other primary sources documenting the history of Southern Africa.
