By Lisa Vives
Firefighters have been battling to contain a fire, six hours after it broke out in the 138-year-old Cape Town Parliament complex. An individual has been arrested in connection with the incident.
The roof of the old National Assembly building has collapsed and authorities fear significant damage has been done to priceless artifacts inside, including the manuscript of lyrics for South Africa’s national anthem.
Images broadcast on television showed flames leaping from the roof of one large building, while several others in the parliament building area including the National Assembly were enveloped in a thick cloud of black smoke.
The fire is believed to have started in one of the older buildings, leading to a security cordon near the cathedral where the ashes of the anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu were buried on Saturday.
“The roof of the Old Assembly building has collapsed and is gone,” said JP Smith, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security. “The entire parliamentary complex is severely damaged — waterlogged and smoke damaged.” No casualties have been reported and the cause of the blaze is not yet known.
Parliament spokesman, Moloto Mothapo, said a man in his early 50s was arrested inside the parliamentary complex on Sunday morning, but did not give any further details
Parliamentary officials said they were not aware of any sensitive documents that might have been affected by the fire. But offices belonging to lawmakers in the African National Congress as well as in two smaller opposition parties — the Good Party and the National Freedom Party — were among those badly damaged.
The building houses a collection of rare books and the original copy of the former Afrikaans national anthem Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Voice of South Africa), which was already damaged.
The fire broke out at about 3 a.m. on January 1.
The National Assembly building, with its red and white facade, is where South Africa’s last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, declared the end of the brutal white minority regime in 1990.
South Africans viewed the fire as a double blow on the first two days of the new year, after saying farewell to Tutu and then seeing their Parliament burn.
“It’s just really a terrible setback,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said. “The Arch (Tutu) would’ve been devastated as well. This is a place he supported and prayed for.”
