Move Parliament and save money - Zuma

It would be cheaper to move Parliament to Pretoria than stay in Cape Town, President Jacob Zuma says.

Parliament - It would be cheaper to move Parliament to Pretoria than stay in Cape Town, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday, as he announced the establishment of a government team to explore the relocation.

Although Zuma stressed the matter was not one for the executive to decide as it was “within the ambit of Parliament”, he said a series of studies had shown the cost of moving the legislature to Pretoria would be “significantly less than maintaining the status quo”.

Speaking during question time in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Zuma said an interdepartmental task team had been set up to study the feasibilty of the proposed relocation, which he revived as an issue during his State of the Nation Address in February.

Although the legislature has yet to discuss the move and no final decision has been taken, it has been mooted since the presidency of Nelson Mandela and a number of studies have been conducted on the costs and benefits.

Zuma acknowledged the cost of moving between the two capitals was “huge”. However, he said, preliminary analysis “continues to point to the same conclusions” as those drawn by studies conducted in 1995, 1997 and 2011.

“These indicated that in the long term the cost to relocate the legislative authority from Cape Town to Pretoria will be significantly less than maintaining the status quo,” Zuma said.

The executive would “continue to provide support and information to persuade Parliament to consider the big expenditure item of maintaining two capitals”.

He said the new task team included:

* the Treasury, looking at costs;

* the Justice Department, looking at legislative requirements;

* the Department of Public Service and Administration, looking at administrative implications;

* the Transport Department, looking at logistics;

* the police, looking at safety and security;

* and the Department of Labour, which was looking at human resources.

The Department of Public Works was considering the cost of building a new parliamentary precinct in Pretoria, compared with the cost of upgrading and expanding the existing precinct. Zuma said the presiding officers had made it clear they needed more space.

Zuma acknowledged that Cape Town would lose valuable income and jobs, particularly in the finance and business sectors if Parliament moved.

IFP member Mntomuhle Khawula said the progress made by the executive was “news” to MPs, who had not been kept informed.

He said it would have been better to do “first things first”, such as rooting out corruption and cutting costs.

Zuma said the money spent on the studies for the move should not be seen as wasteful because if Parliament decided to move, it would ask the Treasury for the money to do so.

craig.dodds@inl.co.za

Political Bureau