Parliamentary security ‘not on site’ during fire
Parliament has confirmed that its security personnel were not on the premises when a fire gutted parts of the precinct, including the National Assembly.
It was revealed on Friday morning during an update into the fire, which was presented to the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
Acting Secretary of Parliament Baby Tyawa said the service was outsourced to the South African Police Service during weekends, as per Covid-19 regulations.
“I can confirm that, when Covid-19 happened in 2020 in March, we changed our working schedule. Our parliamentprotection service stopped working on the weekends and public holidays.
“The work of securing the precinct was given to SAPS as this is a national key point. We did not, for two years, have our officials on the precinct at that time. Therefore we did not have our officials on the night the fire happened. Their schedule on the precinct was set to start on the 3 January.”
ALSO READ: Parliament fire report: Sprinklers were last serviced in 2017
The report also found that sprinklers inside parliament were working when maintenance work was conducted in 2021.
“We do note that there were repair works to the sprinkler systems in the Old Assembly and they were conducted after the March fire 2021 and the sprinklers were confirmed to be operational during the 2021 maintenance work that I depicted above. The systems were tested and the valve was reported to be left in an open position,” said Parliament’s Thembeka Kolele.
Kolele also sent out a stern warning that there would be consequences should an investigation by the Hawks and SAPS reveal otherwise.
“The site is subject to an active investigation thus DPWI may not comment further on this item. However we can confirm on this platform that DPWI is reviewing the evidence of works if the necessary three year servicing has not been undertaken.”
