Parliament security breach: Man arrested after unlawful entry into precinct

The individual had jumped the fence on Thursday and slept within the parliamentary precinct. Parliament has confirmed that a man in his 30s was apprehended after unlawfully entering the parliamentary precinct. The man was handcuffed in the early hours of Friday, 11 September 2026, with Protection Services handing him over to the South African Police Service (Saps). Jumped the fence It is believed that the individual had jumped the fence on Thursday and slept within the parliamentary precinct. Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the man is in custody. “The trespassing incident did not disrupt parliamentary operations. Parliament takes any unauthorised access to its precinct seriously and continues to maintain appropriate security measures to safeguard the institution,” Mothapo said. Repairs Parliament’s building is currently undergoing repairs after it was gutted in a fire in 2022. In August, Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament (JSCFMP) dismissed claims of governance issues in the rebuilding of the National Assembly (NA). This comes after the DA called for an urgent investigation into how the project was handled. The party claims there’s been no proof of a lawful transfer of the allocated billions of rand. It says there’s no record of Parliament taking over the project, following the 2022 fire. However, the standing committee has hit back, saying it is public knowledge that the project had to be transferred from Public Works. In a strongly worded response, the Joint Standing Committee rejected what it called “attempts to characterise the rebuilding project as unlawful.” Millions spent Last year, The Citizen reported that more than R500 million had already been spent on repairing Parliament after the fire in 2022, with the total cost of the reconstruction project now projected to reach R4.4 billion. Sections of the National Assembly and Old Assembly buildings suffered major damage during the fire on 2 January 2022. The reconstruction was expected to be completed in late 2026, following delays that have extended the original deadline. Zandile Mafe, who admitted to starting the fire and was charged with terrorism and arson, was declared unfit to stand trial in December 2023.