POLL | Do you believe the fire at parliament is related to the July unrest?

The fire at parliament has left many speculating over a possible link to the July unrest that rocked KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last year.

The New Assembly building and parts of the Old Assembly building were destroyed by the blaze. The fire started in the early hours of Sunday morning and was contained on Wednesday after flaring up again on Monday. 

National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told journalists on Wednesday she could not speculate on whether the incident could be linked to last year's unrest.

“ When this sort of thing happens, you sit down and do an analysis. There is nothing as dangerous as coming to a conclusion which is not informed by a proper analysis by those trained to do so,” said Mapisa-Nqakula. 

She said she would wait for experts to make a pronouncement.

“I belong to the old school where, even if I feel strongly about a matter and read certain things into it, I wait for a person who is trained to say to me, ‘connect the dots here’,” she said.

On Thursday SA Communist Party boss Blade Nzimande said his party suspected the fire and an attack at the Constitutional Court building in Johannesburg on Wednesday may have had a link to events in July 2021.

“We want to give the law enforcement agencies an opportunity to go very deep into this thing but our suspicions as the SACP are that this thing of burning parliament is not unconnected to the counter-revolution in July,” he said.