Western Cape Provincial Parliament

The Western Cape Provincial Parliament operates from a building marked by a distinctive red brick facade and steep gabled roofs, echoing the Dutch colonial style of the seventeen hundreds. It occupies the former Old Assembly Chamber of the South African Parliament, where debates shaped the nation for decades. In nineteen eighty-three, a bomb blast shattered its windows, leaving the building scarred but functional. Today, the local provincial legislature meets here, still housing the high-backed wooden benches that once held the country’s most powerful politicians.