A Cape Town man was arrested after he was found trespassing in the parliamentary precinct.
The incident has been confirmed by Parliament.
In a statement released on Saturday, Parliament confirmed an unknown individual unlawfully entered the parliamentary precinct during the early hours of Friday morning, September 11.
The man is believed to be in his 30s.
The trespasser was immediately apprehended by members of the Parliamentary Protection Services. Thereafter, they subsequently handed the individual over to the South African Police Service (SAPS).
It has been confirmed that the individual is in police custody.
“The trespassing incident did not disrupt parliamentary operations,” it said.
However, Parliament said it takes any unauthorised access to its precinct seriously and continues to maintain appropriate security measures to safeguard the institution.
According to eNCA, the individual had jumped the fence on Thursday and slept within the parliamentary precinct.
Parliament’s building is currently undergoing repairs after it was gutted in a fire in 2022.
Zandile Mafe was arrested for the fire.
The fire broke out just after 6am on January 2, 2022 and firefighters were dispatched within six minutes to douse the flames in the Old Assembly and then the National Assembly, where part of the ceiling had collapsed.
The fire occurred about a month before the much anticipated State of the Nation Address, which had to be relocated to the Cape Town City Hall.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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