Coega investigation into parliament blaze on track, says Patricia de Lille

Minister of public works and infrastructure Patricia de Lille on Tuesday confirmed the fire in the National Assembly building in the parliamentary precinct caused significant damage to a central structural element from the second to the sixth floors.

“The basement floors of the new assembly building are flooded and more inspection work needs to be done in this area. The structural integrity is such that the structure, at this stage, is not vulnerable to collapse,” she said.

De Lille and the head of Infrastructure SA Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa briefed the media on progress made over the past year on projects in the infrastructure investment plan.

The minister used the briefing to update the nation on the parliament fire, saying her department received a preliminary report this week on the blaze that gutted the National Assembly building on January 2 and 3.

She said: “On February 11 we appointed Coega Development Corporation to provide the service (conducting an independent assessment of the fire). They identified structural damage to the building.”

Coega was tasked with making a pronouncement on the extent of the damage caused by the fire.

She said Coega provided professional advice on the safety of the structures as well as measures to temporarily make structures safe to allow investigations to proceed.

“The first deliverable was within a week they must do an initial assessment, which they have done, and upon completion of the assessment the service provider will tell us their preliminary assessment, the cost, the extent of the damage and how long it will take.”

She said Coega had completed the bulk of the preliminary assessment and reported to the National Assembly .

In Coega’s final structural assessment report, De Lille said the company will design the report into three zones for the new assembly building using red, amber and green zones.

Green zones will represent areas lightly damaged structurally and which may be accessed immediately by police to continue investigations.

Amber are badly damaged zones which may be accessed almost immediately by properly inducted police teams in the company of Coega specialists.

The red zones are no-go zones as they have been severely damaged, explained De Lille.

“Should the investigation within the no-go zones render specific areas to be very desirable, the structural special engineers will advise on special temporary access structures to be constructed where possible to allow the investigators access with due regard to safety and without applying loads on the severely compromised part of the structure.”

De Lille said Coega further recommended short to medium term measures to be put in place to safeguard personnel and remaining portions of the structure.

“These recommendation are to be put in place after the conclusion of the police investigation.”

De Lille said the Coega team was on track to commence with the second phase comprising a detailed assessment to determine the extent of the damage for full restoration of the building, including providing a cost and time estimate for such work.

She said the latter will commence after the forensic investigations and should take three to four weeks to conclude.

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