According to video footage, residents in the area are seen looking helplessly at the puffs of black smoke filling the sky, while the roof of the building is ablaze with fire.

On the scene, firefighters are trying to salvage the situation as they battle with the fire whose cause is not yet clear.

The Houses of Parliament, Cape Town, are the building consisting of three main sections: the original building, completed in 1884, and additions constructed in the 1920s and 1980s.

The houses of parliament are filled with history.

In 1960, the then prime minister of Britain, Sir Harold MacMillan, made a speech there to the South African Parliament that resounded around the world.

Dubbed the "Winds of Change speech", it presaged Britain’s plan to divest itself of all its African colonies and thereby allow for an independent African continent.

It is also where, on April 28 2014, a huge bust of Nelson Mandela was unveiled in tribute to the country’s first democratically elected black president.

This fire comes hours after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's state funeral at St George's Cathedral, which is near to the Parliament.

As the fire raged, it was reported by city authorities that the roof area was ablaze and the National Assembly building was on fire too.

"The fire is not under control and cracks in the walls of the building have been reported," a spokesperson for the city's emergency services said.

In an increasingly desperate situation, the fire is rising and is currently on the third floor.

The fire, according to initial reports from city authorities, began in the office space of the building and has spread to the gym section also housed on the same premises.