Moving parliament to Tshwane still under consideration
The jury is still out on whether parliament should move, but Thandi Modise says the Cape Town precinct does not meet the spatial needs of MPs
The current design of the parliamentary precinct is not conducive to the spatial needs of MPs and the proposed relocation of the National Assembly from Cape Town to Tshwane is still under consideration, speaker Thandi Modise said on Tuesday.
“The precinct does not have enough venues to accommodate all committee sittings. We spend too much money renting venues outside parliament,” Modise said as she delivered parliament’s budget vote speech.
The debate over moving parliament has been raised many times since the first democratic elections in 1994. SA has three main capital cities: Tshwane as the administrative capital; Cape Town as the legislative capital; and Bloemfontein as the judicial capital.
Those in favour of moving parliament to Tshwane argue that huge savings can be made if the national legislature is moved as officials and cabinet ministers’ travel costs would be slashed, as well as hotel costs for officials attending meetings in parliament.
Others contend that the cost of moving parliament from Cape Town to Tshwane would be astronomical with new buildings and parliamentary villages having to be constructed.
In 2017, former president Jacob Zuma suggested relocating parliament to Tshwane.
“Parliament then undertook to test the opinions of South Africans on this matter,” said Modise. “I understand a feasibility study was undertaken — we must still get the report. What we were concerned about was how and where this was done. This matter must still be followed up and we will report to the house.”
Modise said, however, that the current design of the parliamentary precinct was not conducive to the spatial needs of members.
“The engagement with [the department of] public works is ongoing to acquire more floors in the 90 Plein street building [a high-rise building near parliament] and to refurbish the existing buildings in the precinct. What this brings to question is, what and exactly where is the precinct of parliament and who controls it?”
Modise also said the sixth parliament must undertake a review of the code of ethical conduct and disclosure of members’ interests to strengthen the ethical standards to which MPs must adhere and also address the drafting irregularities in the code.
For the 2019/2020 financial year, parliament requested just more than R3bn from the National Treasury. However, the legislature was allocated about R2.6bn. “So we have a shortfall of R394m, which has a direct bearing on how we run this institution,” said Modise.
Included in parliament’s budget are medical aid contributions for former MPs and provincial legislatures, as well as transfers to political parties represented in parliament.
Modise said parliament is of the view that this should be accommodated for elsewhere because they distort the budget. “Engagement with the president as head of state and the finance minister is ongoing with a view to addressing this.”