Parliament, Saturday, 1 August 2026 – The Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament (JSCFMP) has noted the media statement questioning the governance and implementation arrangements for the Rebuilding of Parliament project released by the Democratic Alliance (DA) today. The committee rejects these attempts to characterise the rebuilding project as unlawful.
Since the start of the project, the committee has received regular updates on the rebuilding project. Established under the Financial Management of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, it is the committee’s mandate to receive and scrutinise expenditure and implementation of Parliament’s programmes, including the Rebuilding Project.
During these briefings, the committee was satisfied that the existing governance and implementation arrangements were not a unilateral exercise, but rather they followed extensive engagements between Parliament, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) and National Treasury. During those engagements, the DPWI acknowledged that it did not have the institutional capacity required to implement a project of the scale and complexity and urgency necessary to rebuild Parliament following the fire in January 2022. Recognising these delivery constraints, the department agreed that Parliament should assume responsibility for implementation through appointing a suitably capable implementing agent. So, the DPWI not only participated in the decision-making process from the outset, it has remained represented on the multi-stakeholder governance structures established to oversee the rebuilding project and continues to participate in those structures.
Parliament subsequently appointed the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as implementing agent and concluded an agreement governing this relationship. This appointment, therefore, did not arise from any assumption of custodianship over the Parliamentary precinct. It arose from a collaborative and legally informed decision taken within the framework of cooperative government to ensure effective delivery and accountability of public resources following an extraordinary event.
Thus, the committee urges caution against conflating two distinct governance functions – the custodianship of government immovable assets and the authority to implement a nationally significant infrastructure project. These functions serve different purposes and are governed by different legal and institutional frameworks.
The rebuilding project arose from an unprecedented disaster that destroyed parts of Parliament's National Assembly and Old Assembly buildings. This had a significant impact on its constitutional operations and created immediate business continuity, governance and occupational health and safety obligations. Parliament, as the institution directly affected, had a constitutional responsibility to ensure that appropriate arrangements were established to restore its functionality within the applicable constitutional, legislative and governance framework.
“The DA’s statement disregarded the information already placed in the public domain about the project’s implementation arrangements, said the acting Co-Chairperson of the JSCFMP, Mr Cameron Dugmore. “The DA is clutching at straws. It is a matter of public record that the former Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Ms Patricia de Lille, supported the Development Bank of Southern Africa being appointed to manage the reconstruction project. Parliament subsequently concluded an agreement with the DBSA,” he said, adding that the committee will conduct an in-loco oversight visit to the parliamentary precinct on Friday morning as part of its responsibility to oversee the implementation of the project.
The committee will not prejudge requests that may be submitted by individual members or any matter that may subsequently be placed before it. Any such request will be considered through the committee’s established processes.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CO-CHAIRPERSON OF THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF PARLIAMENT, MS SANNY NDHLOVU AND ACTING CO-CHAIRPERSON, MR CAMERON DUGMORE.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s media officer:
Name: Alicestine October (Ms)
Cell: 083 665 4345
E-mail: aoctober@parliament.gov.za
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