By Zivanai Dhewa

President Emmerson Mnangagwa today went on tour at the new Parliament building that is being constructed in Mt Hampden kopje, to see  progress, as it is set to open in September/October 2021, the Harare Post can report.

On its Twitter handle, the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, through its Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana, gave a detailed brief of the proceedings of His Excellency’s visit to the new site.

“Today President Mnangagwa held his fifth tour of the New Parliament Building which is a major infrastructure work that will see the construction of a new city in Mount Hampden,” said Mangwana

Mangwana gave a detailed brief on the scale of the building, and plans to transform that whole area around the new Parliament building.

“The new Parliament sits on 70metre platform, symbolically projecting legislative supremacy, it will comprise of common areas, general public and press areas and 800 parking bays.

“Other projects will include new modes of transport such as high performance trains and the nearby Charles Prince Airport will be upgraded. 

“Its going to be a City Park, other key structures to be incorporated into the design are office parks, commercial entities, agro-processing structures, hotels, conference center, golf course, apartments, cluster houses and garden flats,” said Mangwana.

Sheding light on the delays for the completion, Mangwana said, “Covid19 scaled down progress at the project which is now at 59% completion.

A look at history shows that, the existing Parliament Building was converted from a hotel that went broke in the 1890s and was bought at bargain price by the British South Africa Company’s (BSAC) administrator. The space has since become inadequate as it was meant for 100 representatives; the current Parliament has 270 members in the National Assembly and 80 in the Senate.  A clear indication that there was need for a bigger Parliament building.