OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday 5.00pm.
A REMARKABLE network of underground tunnels and escape routes underneath the parliamentary offices in Cape Town have been uncovered by workers from the Department of Public Works.
The findings include concealed bunkers, passages leading to a hidden lift, a large holding dam and a stairway leading to one of the former prime ministers’ office.
It is believed the “escape routes” were designed and constructed during Hendrik Verwoerd and John Vorster’s terms of office.
A one-person lift, hidden behind a waist-high cupboard in the passage of the prime minister’s office, was designed to carry Verwoerd or Vorster to the roof for immediate evacuation during racial tensions.
During former president P W Botha’s era of “total onslaught”, thick metal-plated concrete pillars were erected at the main entrance to the president’s office at Tuynhuys to prevent suicidal car-bombers.
During the demolition of the concrete base on which the Verwoerd bust is mounted, a tunnel stretching from the parliamentary buildings to the basement of the H F Verwoerd building on Plein Street were uncovered.
This secret escape passage to cabinet ministers’ offices was constructed during the Vorster era.
Workers also discovered a lift shaft which linked this tunnel to an auditorium in 120 Plein Street.
The second concealed lift, also for one person, goes down two floors to the basement, before linking up with a tunnel leading to Plein Street.
The mysterious finds also include an underground dungeon commissioned by Verwoerd. To enter the dungeon, one has to climb down a steep steel staircase.