Cape Town (AFP) - The fire at the South African Parliament, which raged for two days, was under control according to firefighters on Tuesday and a suspect arrested on Sunday in its compound was briefly presented in court of Cape Town.

Zandile Christmas Mafe, a slender, bearded 49-year-old man in a gray shirt and denim shorts, presented a closed face to the criminal court, which adjourned the hearing to January 11, to allow investigators to specify certain elements of the investigation when the premises will be accessible and to assess the cost of the damage in particular.

The suspect will remain in jail until then.

When he arrived in the small courtroom, he took off his mask and turned around to present his face to the cameras and photographers' boxes, AFP journalists noted.

His lawyer, Me Luvuyo Godla, who graciously defends him, had time to say that his client denied any involvement and that he would plead not guilty. And the accusation that she would oppose any parole.

The indictment, to which AFP had access, shows that the suspect is accused of having broken into the huge building located in the center of Cape Town, of having "set fire to the Parliament Buildings" and stealing "laptops, crockery and documents".

The wooded room with leather chairs where the deputies sit and from where the president delivers his speech to the nation every year has been completely destroyed, leaving the country flabbergasted.

- Unattended cameras -

In this most recent part of the vast building, made up of three buildings dating from different eras, the firefighters had to retreat on Sunday in the face of the intensity of the fire before taming the flames during the night, revealing a black and soggy carcass.

In the meantime, the fire had resumed on Monday afternoon and firefighters fought in the evening with strong winds in the port city, before "bringing it under control just before midnight" (2200 GMT), clarified to AFP spokesman for the city's fire department, Jermaine Carelse.

Tuesday morning, "just before 05:00" (3:00 GMT), "there was a small flare-up of flames but the firefighters managed to put it out", he added. At midday, four fire engines remained at work, about twenty firefighters "to follow the evolution of the situation".

The fire broke out at dawn on Sunday, in the oldest wing of the impressive building, the roof of which was completely destroyed. According to the investigators, the fire started in two separate homes and the automatic extinguishing system did not work properly because the water was cut off.

Security cameras showed that Zandile Mafe was present in the building around 2 a.m. "But the security only saw it around 6 a.m., when they looked at the screens, alerted by the smoke," Public Works Minister Patricia De Lille told AFP.

“The cameras worked. The problem is that nobody checked them during that fateful night,” she explained to the press. "That too is part of the investigation. How did we not know earlier that there was someone in the building? There must have been a security breach," he said. she found.

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Cape Town has been the seat of Parliament since 1910, while the government is based in Pretoria.

The country of 59 million people has three capitals: administrative in Pretoria (north), legislative in Cape Town (southwest) and judicial in Bloemfontein (center). Johannesburg, the business center, is its largest city.