South Africa’s National Assembly building and other buildings in the Cape Town parliamentary complex were severely damaged by a fire that began around 6 a.m. local time on Sunday, Jan. 2 (UTC+2). More than 12 hours later, firefighters were still fighting to bring the fire under control in the Old Assembly, which dates back to 1884 and is home to the upper house, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). Parliament is still closed for the Christmas and New Year holidays, and no one was injured. There are strong indications of arson.
A person was arrested inside the complex according to Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia De Lille. (Recall that in the Reichstag Fire in Berlin, Feb. 27, 1933, a patsy was discovered on site.)
She said that, according to a report that she received, a standard maintenance fire drill had been executed just before the holiday closure, and that everything, including the sprinklers, was in working order. She told Reuters today, “What was discovered this morning is that somebody has closed one of the valves and so then there was no water” for the automatic sprinkler system. She further revealed that CCTV footage confirmed that somebody had been in the building from the early hours of the morning.
Jean-Pierre Smith, a Cape Town mayoral committee member responsible for safety and security, told reporters that parliament’s fire alarm had only rung when firefighters were already on site, according to Reuters.
NB: This report is preliminary and relies entirely on the mass media.
