{"id":916467,"date":"2022-01-15T10:25:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T10:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/15\/mixed-reaction-from-mps-on-parliamentary-fire-reports\/"},"modified":"2022-01-15T10:25:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T10:25:49","slug":"mixed-reaction-from-mps-on-parliamentary-fire-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/15\/mixed-reaction-from-mps-on-parliamentary-fire-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed reaction from MPs on parliamentary fire reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cape Town \u2013 The reports on fire and fire security systems at Parliament drew a mixed reaction from MPs on Friday, with some saying they cleared the air on matters in the public domain, while others said they found difficult to reconcile them.<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), and Parliament gave their preliminary reports and updates on work done to repair and maintain fire systems in the national legislature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The department said the fire and related systems were functional at the time the fire broke out and gutted the National Assembly and the Old Assembly.<\/p>\n

The officials said there were certificates to prove that maintenance and inspections were conducted up to last month and that it was done annually.<\/p>\n

ANC MP Kenneth Mmoiemang said what was comforting was the assurance that there was maintenance and the certificates clearly gave a picture on matters such as the fire sprinklers and fire extinguishers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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MORE ON THIS<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat gives one comfort is the report from the internal audit unit which clearly categorises the work done by the management with regard to occupational and safety work,\u201d Mmoiemang said.<\/p>\n

He said there should be mitigation of scapegoating by the stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is this incident being turned into a game of blaming. It is clearly an unfortunate incident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another ANC MP Nolitha Ntobongwana said the reports cleared some issues in the public domain.<\/p>\n

\u201cTests have been done and conducted up to December last year. What happened is not something anyone envisaged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ntobongwana said she was happy to learn that the sprinkler system was working when the fire broke out in March 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe City of Cape Town fire department report presents a bleak report that the sprinklers were not working and last worked in 2017. I appreciate that this report clears some air,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ntobongwana said the department did its work to ensure that all that was supposed to work was functioning on that fateful day.<\/p>\n

But she was not pleased that they only received the report by auditors BDO the night before their meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf we received and discussed as the portfolio committee doing oversight on the department, some issues would have been prevented. It would have made sure there is work that is being done,\u201d Ntobongwana said.<\/p>\n

But, DA MP Samantha Graham said the BDO report had revealed the massive risk in every single area of the parliamentary precinct.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it hard to reconcile the findings in the BDO report to what was presented in terms of inspections and maintenance,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She noted that the department\u2019s report claimed that the fire panels were fully functional, yet a post incident report of the fire department said not a single fire alarm went off when the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first alarms that went off are in Tuynhuis \u2013 adjacent to the buildings \u2013 after the fire fighters were in the precinct. I fail to see how the fire panels could have been effective,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her colleague Madeleine Hicklin was more scathing of Minister Patricia de Lille, saying all the problems highlighted in the BDO report were not new.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey are things we identified as the portfolio committee for the last three years,\u201d Hicklin said.<\/p>\n

She accused De Lille of sitting on the report for over a year after commissioning it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBDO says they gave this report to the department in October 2020 and you gave out a statement in September 2021 saying heads must roll because this report was not handed to you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWell, heads have not rolled, have they? The first head that must roll must be yours,\u201d Hicklin said.<\/p>\n

Equally scathing was NFP\u2019s Munzoor Shaik-Emam who asked whether De Lille should be taken seriously for not acting after receiving the BDO report 13 months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you read the report and the findings, it is very clear that had anybody been on the premises at the time, it would have been horrific.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFrom 2018, I am concerned why you had not paid serious and appropriate attention on the risks,\u201d Shaik-Emam said.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

Political Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cape Town \u2013 The reports on fire and fire security systems at Parliament drew a mixed reaction from MPs on Friday, with some saying they cleared the air on matters in the public domain, while others said they found difficult to reconcile them. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), and Parliament gave their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}