ANC calls for probe into IFP, DA office fires

The DA's office in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature is the second premises occupied by an opposition party to have been gutted by fire in less than a month.

The party yesterday said it would hire a private investigator to determine the exact cause of the fire.

"The fire comes at a time when there is division over the building of a new legislature precinct, with the DA opposed to such a move.  It also comes after earlier concerns expressed by the party over the lack of maintenance being carried out within the existing legislature precinct," the party said in a statement.

It said the building had been sealed and was likely to be condemned.

"Fortunately no one was injured but there is little left of the historic building except its façade.  Only four offices in a separate wing managed to escape the blaze.  Otherwise the interior is nothing but burnt timber."

The IFP said the fire was viewed with "great suspicion".

“At the last sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature a member of the ruling party, in motivating for a new legislature complex to be built, stated that the Legislature should move out of these buildings because they were built by colonial masters. A few days after that our offices were burnt down and now the offices of the official opposition have been destroyed," IFP MPL Blessed Gwala said.

He said it was too much of a "coincidence that only the offices of the two largest opposition parties have been destroyed one after the other in such a short period of time".

“This can be viewed as a political conspiracy either to disrupt the work of the opposition or a desperate attempt to add strength to the call for the building of a new legislature complex in Pietermaritzburg  or both," he said.

The ANC said it was deeply concerned by the statements made by opposition parties before the investigation was concluded.

"It is very irresponsible for the opposition parties to start making unfounded allegations on the matter as we do not know whether it was an electric fault or caused by arson," said ANC caucus spokesman Sikhumbuzo Qwabe.

The ruling party called for a full investigation to determine the cause of the fire.

"We are extremely concerned that it happened barely a month after another office used by the IFP in the same complex was also destroyed by fire."