Houses of Parliament (Cape Town)

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Portico and building entrance on Government Avenue

The Houses of Parliament are a complex of buildings in Cape Town , where, according to the constitution, the two chambers of the Parliament of South Africa , the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces , have their seat and conference venue.

position

The building complex is located in the center of Cape Town between Government Avenue and Saint Johns Road . The location of the building is in the former Company Gardens of the Dutch East India Company . There are currently three buildings named National Assembly and National Council of Provinces and Old Assembly Chamber .

History of the building complex

Design sketch by Charles Freeman
Parliament building shortly after its completion
In terms of architectural history, the most recent wing of the building complex (1988), where the meetings took place until the fire incident in 2022.

Queen Victoria authorized the Cape Colony to set up a parliament in 1853 . In 1854 the constituent session was held in Tuynhuys , the official seat of the governor of the colony. After that, the Assembly of Representatives moved into the Goede Hoop Masonic Lodge, which was originally built as a gathering place for the Freemasons .

Soon the desire arose for a more representative building. The search for a suitable building site began in 1860, with several locations being considered. Colonial Engineer Scott-Tucker presented a first draft for a location where Cape Town's City Hall now stands on Darling Street .

About 15 years later the decision was made for a location on what is now Government Avenue and an architectural competition was announced. The winner was the “Spes Bona” project by Charles Freeman , who at the time was employed as an architect in the Department of Public Works of the Cape Colony.

The foundation stone was finally laid on May 12, 1875 with a grand ceremony by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Henry Barkly , and in the presence of many dignitaries. Shortly after the start of construction, it turned out that the planning was inadequate and the estimated costs were well above the originally stated value of 50,000 pounds . A parliamentary committee of inquiry was appointed to clarify these shortcomings. After lengthy negotiations, Charles Freeman lost his post as a public architect and he was held responsible for all the ills. Henry Greaves , a young architect from England in the service of the Department of Works and employed on site as site manager, was finally commissioned to revise Freeman's plans. The specific facade design from the Victorian era was ultimately created through his planning involvement . In the course of the considerable changes in the construction process, the original foundation stone was removed and lost under rubble. Its contents, coins and a roll of parchment , were secretly recovered, placed in a metal box and built into the foundations of the parliamentary library building in the entrance area. Construction did not end until 1884 and for a grand total of £ 200,000. The opening ceremony of the parliament building took place on May 18, 1885. With the new building, both chambers of parliament of the Cape Colony could meet in the same place: the Cape Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the Cape Legislative Council (upper house).

A convention made up of representatives of the forerunner colonies met here in preparation for the establishment of the South African Union and between January 11 and February 3, 1909, discussed the draft of the South Africa Act , the constitution of the new state, and concluded it there. With the establishment of the South African Union, a second building was added, which served as a chamber for the Union Parliament and was in function for this purpose until the founding of the Republic in 1961. According to plans by the architect Herbert Baker , it was renovated in the 1920s and redesigned in an Edwardian style. The old parliament building was reserved for the Senate of the Union and the Republic until 1980 . Today it serves as the boardroom of the National Council of Provinces. In the building of the second chamber ("Old Assembly Chamber") renovations were carried out, after which it was used as a representative reception and banquet center of the government.

In 1983, construction began on another wing of the building based on the designs of Jack van der Lecq and Hannes Meiring. This had become necessary because with the new constitution of 1983 a three-chamber parliament was introduced from 1984 and the previous premises could not cover the expanded space requirements. The new building was inaugurated in 1988. The sessions of the National Assembly took place in this outwardly neoclassical wing with a dominant portico until the end of 2021. Therefore, it appears in the public perception as the parliament building in the narrower sense.

In 2014, the Houses of Parliament were listed as national heritage by the South African Heritage Resources Agency .

Fire incident in January 2022

On January 2, 2022, a fire spread in the building complex. The roof areas and the rooms below were badly affected. The fire was discovered around 6 a.m. and initially fought by 35 firefighters who were quickly reinforced. At a first press conference the city administration announced: “The entire parliament complex has been badly damaged, flooded with water and damaged by smoke.” President Cyril Ramaphosa also came to the site of the disaster. His information about the arrest of a suspect was confirmed shortly afterwards by Patricia de Lille , Minister for Public Works and Infrastructure. Shortly before the parliamentary break on the Christmas and New Year holidays, there was an obligatory fire-fighting exercise, during which the functionality of the sprinkler system in the building complex was also determined. Minister de Lille said in a statement: "This morning it was found that someone had closed one of the valves so there was no water to trigger the automatic sprinkler system." In addition, video recordings in the early hours of the morning had a person in the fire affected building detected.

According to the minister's first findings, the fire started on the third floor of an old area of ​​the building with offices, from where the flames later reached the building of the National Assembly in front of it. However, the spread of fire could not be effectively limited here. Regarding the overall damage situation, de Lille said: “We were unable to contain the fire in the rooms of the National Assembly. Part of the ceilings collapsed. ”Stored cultural assets relating to the history of the state could also have been damaged or destroyed. Hours later, a speaker from parliament announced that the session room of the National Assembly was "completely burned". On the evening of January 3, 2022, the fire flared up again.

Web links

Commons : Houses of Parliament (Cape Town)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d SAHRA: House of Parliament . at www.sahra.org.za (English).
  2. ↑ Phillida Brooke Simons: Cape Dutch Houses and Other Old Favorites . Fernwood Press, Vlaeberg 2000. ISBN 1-874950-47-4, p. 28.
  3. ^ JL McCracken: The Cape Parliament, 1854-1910 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1967, p. 139.
  4. ^ A b c d Désirée Picton-Seymour, Janek Szymanowski: Historical Buildings in South Africa . Struikhof, Cape Town 1989, pp. 12, 18.
  5. ^ Graham Leach: South Africa: No Easy Path to Peace . Methuen, London 1987. ISBN 0-413-15330-4 , p. 41.
  6. ^ South African Heritage Resources Agency : Houses of Parliament . at www.sahris.sahra.org.za (English)
  7. ^ Adrie Pillans: A very strange union . In: South African Panorama , Vol. 33, Issue 5, May 1988. pp. 25, 26.
  8. ^ Andrew Cusack: The National Assembly . at www.andrewcusack.com (English).
  9. ↑ Andrew Meldrum, Gerald Imray: Fire ravages South Africa's historic Parliament complex . Announcement from AP on January 2, 2022 at www.apnews.com (English).
  10. ^ Ally Barnard, Jennifer Hauser: Large fire tears through South Africa's parliament, causing roof to collapse . Reported to CNN on January 2, 2022 at www.edition.cnn.com (English).
  11. ↑ Anonymous: Huge fire brings down roof at Parliament . Announcement from 24.com of January 2, 2022 on www.news24.com (English).
  12. ^ Wendell Roelf: Suspect arrested in connection with South African parliament fire . Reuters report dated January 2, 2022 at www.reuters.com .
  13. ↑ Andrew Meldrum, Gerald Imray: Fire ravages Cape Town seat of South Africa's Parliament . Report by AP dated January 2, 2022 at www.msn.com (English).
  14. ^ Anonymus: South Africa parliament building in Cape Town catches fire . Announcement of January 2, 2022 at Al Jazeera English on www.aljazeera.com (English).
  15. ↑ Anonymous: the session room of the South African parliament completely destroyed . In: Der Spiegel , January 2, 2022.
  16. ↑ South Africa's parliament is on fire again Tagesschau.de, January 3, 2022.

Coordinates: 33 ° 55 ′ 34.5 ″  S , 18 ° 25 ′ 9.2 ″  E