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The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape will request an urgent briefing on the state of the broken and eroding Northern Cape Provincial Legislature.

A virtual evacuation occurred today, following an admission by the Provincial Secretary, Patrick Moopelwa, that the legislature is in fact “a ticking time bomb”.

Moopelwa was addressing legislature staff and union members who gathered outside the legislature gates, refusing to set foot on the precinct. This, after it came to light that legislature management has been withholding critical information on the real state of the facility. This is believed to relate to very real dangers, including shifting foundations and the risk of an explosion due to the unaddressed matter of water leakage on electricity cables.

More than two years ago, staff were relocated to temporary accommodation. Over R30 million was spent on the legislature precinct upgrades. Staff returned to the building at the start of the year. The state of the facility, however, is in a worse condition than when we left. It also remains highly questionable as to whether, aside from superficial painting and tiling, any structural repairs were ever done.

It is incomprehensible that the legislature would so casually play with people’s lives and attempt to put a muzzle on a report that exposes the flaws of this monstrosity of a building.

What frustrates us even more, is that we have been lied to about this building from the word go. The dangers were always downplayed. Deadlines were never met, because it was never intended that they would be met. Budgets were also never transparent.

The DA will insist upon a meeting with legislature management, as well as with the labour and safety officers who have assessed this facility. We also want the respective union members to be present, as we want the whole truth to come out.

We also want an independent investigation launched into the contracts and entire expenditure of the precinct project

No one should return to this building before the necessary clearance certificates are obtained from all stakeholders.

There is no doubt that the legislature building has become a monument to corruption. It is high time that those responsible for wasting millions of rands, without anything to show for it, must be held accountable.

Those who were willing to place the lives of employees on the line, must also be exposed.

After the elections of the 8 May, should I become Premier of this province, I will obtain specialist reports by independent engineers on this building in order to make a decision on the future of the legislature building.

Only the DA will place the safety and wellbeing of our employees first.

Issued by The DA