South African politicians want ‘housing allowances’
A number of South African MPs have asked for housing allowances to spend on their own properties, instead of spending millions of rands renovating ageing state housing.
While the MPs did not specify what the limit on this housing allowance should be, they argue that it will work out cheaper than the department of public works plan to spend R345 million on renovations and demolitions, the Sunday Times reports.
“We are in those discussions because these ‘deep renovations’ of old houses with structural defects is going to be costly given our economic situation,” said Dorries Dlakude, the deputy chief whip of the ANC.
“We told them this is not in the interest of our economic situation, or even in the interest of us members, because you cannot spend millions on old houses. It’s costly to renovate an old house.”
Peter Makapan, head of the secretariat for the independent commission that determines the salaries and benefits for MPs, confirmed that he had received a letter from parliament requesting a housing allowance but it is yet to be discussed by the commission.
In the time being Public Works minister, Patricia de Lille said the renovation project would go ahead.
She said renovating 245 of the houses in three parliamentary villages across Cape Town — Acacia Park, Laboria Park and Pelican Park — would cost R95 million, while R250 million more had been set aside for demolishing old prefabs and rebuilding other brick structures.
Revised perks for ministers
The discussion around housing allowances follows the launch of a new ministerial handbook for members of the executive, slashing some of the major perks offered to government ministers.
In a media briefing on Monday (9 December), DPSA minister Senzo Mchunu said that the changes have been approved by president Cyril Ramaphosa and reflect government’s ‘fiscal prudence’.
Some of the most notable changes to the handbook include:
- On the procurement of official vehicles, the cost of the vehicles is limited to R700,000 (including VAT), maintenance plans and security extras;
- Members and their partners must travel in economy class for all official domestic travel as well as international travel where the travel time is less than two hours;
- Travel by a spouse is limited to six domestic economy trips per year;
- Additional travel tickets for private use has been reduced from 30 to 20 tickets a year;
- The state will not bear any costs in respect of security upgrades done at the minister’s private residences;
- The rental of cellphones and the cost of official calls is limited to R60,000 per annum;
- The ministerial support staff has been drastically reduced;
- The state will limit its contribution towards water and lights at R5,000 a month for state-owned residences;
- The continued benefits for members upon relinquishing office is one calendar month;
- A member is allowed to occupy one state-owned resident free of charge but may rental for other properties they plan to use.
Mchunu said that similar restrictions are set to be placed in other areas of the public service – including mayors and managers.
Read: Business class flights and 5-star hotels – the lifestyles of South Africa’s millionaire ministers
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