Parliament to hand over fire-damaged New Assembly building for construction on Monday
This is slightly behind original timelines, pushing out the completion date to October 2026.
Inside the fire-damaged portion of Parliament in Cape Town. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - Parliament said that its fire-ravaged New Assembly building would be handed over for construction on Monday.
This is slightly behind original timelines, pushing out the completion date to October 2026.
Parliament said this was because its contractor had not been agile enough to adapt to challenges that presented during the demolition phase.
Parliament’s executive on Friday gave its oversight committee a status update on the progress made to restore its main chambers after the New Year’s fire of 2022.
Parliament said on Friday that it received its construction work permit from the labour department.
Project manager, Simon Mashigo, said the rebuild was expected to take 20 months from the start of the site handover.
He said that design and heritage matters had taken longer than expected, setting back the progress by two months.
Inclement weather and the removal of rubble also added to the delays, putting this phase of the project at 98% complete.
"The contractor, on his part, there were his own productivity challenges. He could not adapt to all these risks that actually arose and as a result, the DBSA levied penalties on the contractor."
Parliament said it expects all tender processes to be concluded for the Old Assembly building in April, for construction to begin in earnest by 5 May.