What is it about politicians and their blithe disregard for costs and deadlines? Are we to conclude that unjustified optimism — or, more bluntly, lying about what’s possible — is a necessary precondition for communicating in a democracy?
Take our new parliament building. In March last year, the joint standing committee on the financial management of parliament gave October 2026 as the completion date for reconstructing the buildings that were severely damaged by fire in the first days of 2022. The budget was estimated at R2.2bn, and the committee projected that the official handover would take place after 20 months.
The “Rebuilding South Africa’s Parliament” page on parliament’s website has a different completion date — February 2026, now in the distant past — as well as a cheery message: “Whatsapp ‘hi’ to 0790223346.” I tried that and was immediately sent a bunch of photos of what the completed project was going to look like.
Apparently, the new design will focus on social and spatial justice and features a biophilic, protea-inspired structure that will evoke traditional communal gatherings instead of the colonial equivalent.
According to a 2024 parliamentary monitoring group update on parliament’s website, headed “HEADING COMES IN HERE”, the fire “was an opportunity for parliament to define a narrative from a perspective of users, reflect the will of the people, engender professionalism and align designs to its transformative agenda”.
The design looks jarring, like those pillars that people on golf estates insist on adding to their mansions. But never mind. Perhaps that’s a fitting homage to the fact that a country’s super-secure parliament building can be burnt down by a homeless man suffering from mental illness.
The document is a little begrudging about the endeavour. “Regrettably, the project was initiated against the backdrop of a bleak economic outlook and the pervasive poverty, unemployment and inequality. We however do not have choice but to rebuild as these structures are grade 1 national heritage assets protected by the National Heritage Resources Act.”
And also, one assumes, you do need a parliament building if you want to sustain the illusion of democracy. The fact that we now hold our state of the nation address in a circus tent in a parking lot is perhaps a little too on the nose, metaphorically speaking.
But when homelessness is the problem that contributed to the razing of your parliament, you would do well to think about that less as a metaphor and more as a prediction of what might be to come for the country.
And sometimes the metaphor and the reality are the same thing. News24 reports that acting police minister Firoz Cachalia has said preparations for the June 30 deadline imposed by anti-immigration groups are going to cost R600m.
He wants “people to understand the costs for the country, and therefore for themselves, of reckless behaviour. Now, money that would otherwise have been deployed, maybe to improve safety in a community, build a police station, has to be spent on this, to ensure that we have resources to deal with this protest action.” As many people are pointing out, if we’d only spent the money necessary to alleviate some of the economic disasters presided over by politicians, we might not be in the populist mess.
The completion date for the reconstruction of parliament, according to eNCA, has now been moved to December 2026, and the R2.2bn projection has ballooned to R4.6bn. But we are assured that the 2027 state of the nation address will take place in the newly refurbished National Assembly building.
Something similar is going on over in the US of A, except, in a display of First World efficiency, the mentally disturbed man in this story is responsible for both the destruction and the restoration. President Donald Trump’s “renovation” of the reflecting pool on the National Mall in Washington has overrun its original $1.5m-$1.8m costing by $13m, and is a disaster of bright green algae and peeling paint. Wags have pointed out that Trump’s buddy’s company that was given the contract is literally called Green Water Solutions, so perhaps this was to be expected.
At least we aren’t blaming imaginary vandals for our failings, as is happening in Washington. We seem happy to stick with the tried and tested political method of making promises, breaking them, and then just making some new ones. Let’s see if we do hit the December 2026 completion date. I wouldn’t bet on it.