Blaze Contained, Firefighters Remain On Scene

The fire in Parliament has been contained. The City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue service says it took until midnight to get it under control.

Firefighters battled the blaze into midnight following Monday afternoon’s fire, which was propelled by strong south-easterly winds.

Strong winds reignited a blaze on the roof area above the National Assembly on Monday afternoon.

However, there was another flare-up at 5am on Tuesday.

Cape Town fire authorities said that the fourth and fifth floors of the new wing, above the National Assembly, had been completely gutted. The roof of the building is now also completely destroyed.

Officials expect that a multidisciplinary team of engineers, which arrived on Monday, will conduct assessments and establish the scale of the damage once they’re given the all-clear to go in.