Secretary to Parliament Xolile George noted on Thursday that Parliament is currently working on creating 54 additional offices, with an envisaged completion date of July, before the commencement of the Seventh Parliament.

George was briefing the media on the reconstruction project, on which he said much work had been ongoing from January 2022.

He announced that Parliament was busy identifying space between the eighth and fourteenth floors, in the 90 Plein Street building, to accommodate the additional offices for MPs.

The 54 new offices will be in addition to the 155 offices that were reconfigured on the fourth and fifth floors, last year.

George highlighted that after the fire, the site was taken over by the law enforcement agencies for investigations and later handed to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

He said Parliament took over the responsibility to manage the works in March 2023, highlighting that a second phase of the work was undertaken to determine the extent of the damage, potential restoration and likely costs associated with various scenarios.

In October last year, R2-billion was appropriated to start the work on the fire that engulfed Parliament.

He said as a result of the studies conducted and subsequent issue of permits by the South African Heritage Resources Agency, limited debris clearance and stabilisation work in safe areas were undertaken during 2023, along with the installation of temporary roofs to protect the building from the weather.

He said assets were verified and a register updated, based on their net book values, and recovered assets were moved to offsite storage.

George noted that some assets were not affected by the fire but had a lower book value.