READER LETTER | Save costs by moving parliament to Pretoria

Let’s brace ourselves for 2025. The ancestral Nelson Mandela would turn in the makeshift dome at the Niewmeester parking lot, Cape Town. This is the temporary home of the National Assembly for the next two years after the chamber was gutted by fire in January 2022.

GDP is contracting and our economy is said to be stagnant. One time we talk about belt-tightening to the poor majority, the next we brazenly hike the bloated executives’ salaries.

Truth is, the working class is forfeiting salary increments, being retrenched or their pay cheque cut in the name of austerity measures.

It’s also true that Pretoria is the seat of the executive, and we are spending a fortune flying and offering double accommodation to the executives. It, therefore, defies simplicity and frugality. Why can’t we house parliament in the capital city?

There should be no political confusion. It’s simply looting the fiscus. It’s almost three years of fruitless renting. Obviously, by now an erected and imposing parliament would be aesthetically standing in the Jacaranda City.

Thami Zwane, Edenvale