• The National Treasury has outlined how much money will be allocated to the restoration of Parliament following an arson-related fire in January of 2022.
• The total budget is estimated at R2 billion, with the project to be completed sometime in 2025.
• The National Treasury has also unpacked the costs of employment for Parliament between now and the project’s completion.

Earlier today Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, unpacked plans regarding the restoration of Parliament. Many will remember the damage wrecked on the building at the beginning of 2022.

The arson-related incident, which lasted three days, has meant no sessions have been held in the building, and the prospect of that changing may only happen sometime in 2025.

This as Mapisa-Nqakula detailed the budget for the project, as well as when it is expected to be completed. Regarding the latter, much of the work is anticipated to happen during next year, but the building will only be able to operate again as it once did in 2025.

Here, Mapisa-Nqakula said that the National Treasury, “Made a firm commitment to cover the rest of the financial requirements for the restoration of its infrastructure and will allocate a total budget of R2 billion over the course of the restoration project,” per SA News.

“We envisage that although much of the work of the restoration will happen during the next year, the total restoration will only be finalised by 2025,” she added.

Along with explaining how much the restoration project will cost, the Speaker made special mention of the budget for those working for Parliament. Like many other sectors in South Africa, rising inflation mean measures will need to be taken, such as cost-cutting wherever feasible.

“Parliament officials will therefore have to engage National Treasury on the impending shortfalls in the allocation of Parliament’s budget. The Parliamentary Budget Office – a separate entity in terms of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act – receives a transfer payment under Programme 3 and will need more funding over time to function effectively,” she said.

“Also included in this 2023/24 appropriation is an amount of R58 million to be utilised to achieve Parliament’s new transformational targets, which are incorporated to drive the new strategic direction toward the 7th Parliamentary Term. Parliament will embark on preparing the Strategic Plan and budgeting for the 7th Parliament,” the Speaker continued.

Given how government spending has gone in recent decades, it will be interesting to see whether the advised 2025 date will come to fruition for the restoration.

[Source – SA News]
[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]