Fort Klapperkop could house parliament should it be moved from Cape Town, Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said in his state of the city address on Thursday.
“This site passed all the criteria, including its relevance to the Tshwane inner-city renewal strategy; its symbolic significance and standing relative to the Union Buildings; its natural and environmental dimensions; as well as its accessibility and immediate availability of land,” he said.
The city owned the land and the site was close to the main roads leading into the Pretoria CBD, to the Gautrain, and to OR Tambo International Airport.
“Above all else, the location of parliament at Fort Klapperkop connects the trilogy of significant monuments in the form of the Union Buildings, the National Heroes Acre at Fountains Valley and the informal cultural capital — Freedom Park — where we find ourselves today,” he said.
He said one of the glaring divisions of the country’s past was the the physical separation of the state’s legislative and executive arms.
“This outcome is itself the result of a political process in which the majority of our people were excluded. The legislative and executive arms were separated in the context of settling stakes of various political camps within the white population,” he said.
Having two capital cities was an ever-present reminder of the country’s morally reprehensible past, which the constitution intended to eradicate.
Ramokgopa argued that if the constitution was to remain the supreme law of the land, a case should be made for moving the legislative capital to Tshwane.