“A man was detained inside parliament and is still being questioned. We have opened a criminal investigation and he will be brought to justice on Tuesday,” said Thandi Mbambo, a spokesman for the Hawks, the elite unit of the South African police.
“The Chamber of Deputies was totally destroyed by the flames”said Moloto Mothapo, the parliament spokesman, explaining that “the fire has not been extinguished yet.”
“The roof of the building that houses the National Assembly collapsed, there is nothing left,” the head of the city’s security services, Jean-Pierre Smith, told reporters hours earlier. “The entire building suffered significant damage from smoke and water,” he added.
Aerial footage from television networks shows huge flames emerging from the ceiling. This large Victorian building, which has several outbuildings, is shrouded in a thick cloud of black smoke.
At the moment no victim has been reported.
The streets of the residential neighborhood where the South African Parliament is located have been quickly closed. The security cordon extends to the flowers still on display in the atrium of the neighboring Saint-Georges cathedral, where the funeral of Desmond Tutu, the last hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, died on December 26. The same morning his ashes had been buried in the church, during a private ceremony.
The fire started in an old Parliament building around 03:00 GMT (00:00 Argentine time).
“The roof caught fire and the National Assembly building also caught fire,” a spokesman for the city’s security, Jean-Pierre Smith, who called for reinforcements, told AFP.
A thick plume of smoke was visible from several kilometers away, according to AFP journalists. People in Cape Town, shocked to wake up to this fire, quickly shared photos on social media.
A team of 30 firefighters was the first to arrive on the scene, and they fought the fire for several hours, before having to back down due to the intensity of the fire, and call in reinforcements.
Hours after the fire was visible from the highway, backup fire trucks arrived. About 80 firefighters are currently on the scene.
“The fire has not been controlled and there are cracks in the walls” of the South African Parliament, Smith added.
“The fire is currently on the third floor and the first signs suggest that it started in the offices before spreading to the gym,” he explained.
Fire crews fear that the fire will spread rapidly in the former halls of parliament, adorned with thick carpets and draperies. The exact origin of the fire is not yet known.
In this massive red brick, white-fronted Victorian building, the last apartheid-era president, FW de Klerk, had announced in February 1990 the end of the racist regime in South Africa.
Cape Town already suffered a major fire in April, on Table Mountain, which destroyed the treasures of the library of a prestigious university.
Cape Town is the seat of Parliament, made up of the National Assembly and an upper house called the National Council of Provinces. The government is based in Pretoria.
Source From: Ambito
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