RELOCATION OF PARLIAMENT BILL WITHDRAWN

RELOCATION OF PARLIAMENT BILL WITHDRAWN

• 19 October 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

EFF leader Julius Malema has withdrawn his Relocation of the Seat of Parliament Bill.

Tabled in November 2022, seven months later the Bill was the focus of a National Assembly debate on the feasibility of moving Parliament to Tshwane and was rejected.

According to a parliamentary media statement issued at the time, ANC MP Hope Papo alluded to the possibility that a ‘dislike’ for the Western Cape may have been behind the Bill’s introduction. Noting the state’s obligation to restore sections of the parliamentary precinct damaged by fire in January 2022, Papo is quoted as having said that to do so – only to ‘abandon them and move to Gauteng’ – would be ‘highly irresponsible’, especially ‘in this difficult economic climate’.

The Bill’s withdrawal was confirmed in parliamentary papers issued the same day as a media statement summarising the findings of forensic investigations into the cause of the fire. The statement attributes the fire to:

• widespread ‘systems and maintenance failures’
• inadequate perimeter fence monitoring
• ‘fire safety deficiencies’
• management shortcomings (apparently related to the irregular appointment of underqualified personnel), and
• non-compliance with supply chain management procurement regulations and standards.

Please click the links below for more information:

• parliamentary papers confirming Bill’s withdrawal (page 2)
• Bill
• media statement on National Assembly debate
• summary of outcome of forensic investigations into the cause of the fire

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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