{"id":674991,"date":"2023-03-24T12:17:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T10:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=674991"},"modified":"2023-03-24T12:17:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T10:17:17","slug":"this-is-how-much-taxpayer-money-is-spent-on-electricity-water-and-generators-for-ministers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/674991\/this-is-how-much-taxpayer-money-is-spent-on-electricity-water-and-generators-for-ministers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how much taxpayer money is spent on electricity, water and generators for ministers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans are paying millions of rands annually to foot the bill for water and electricity at ministerial homes across the country \u2013 amounting to just under R55 million since 2019.<\/p>\n

Responding to a written parliamentary Q&A, the department of public works and infrastructure revealed the total public funds spent on paying the water and electricity bills at state-owned official residences.<\/p>\n

The response came to questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), which asked the department for these figures from 1 June 2019, including the number of public funds that have been spent on procuring and installing alternative power supply \u2013 such as generators, inverters and solar and other electrical systems.<\/p>\n

According to the department, Taxpayers have spent R54.9 million<\/strong> on paying the water and electricity bills at state-owned official residences in Cape Town and Pretoria.<\/p>\n

This included R25.8 million sent for ministerial homes in Cape Town and R29.1 million for homes in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The R29.2 million spent on the homes of ministers and deputy ministers in Pretoria also included R7 million spent on procuring and installing alternative power supply to some houses. At the same time, the department noted that no backup utilities were installed in the homes in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are 97 official residences in South Africa, with 58 ministerial homes in Cape Town and 39 in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The breakdown of the total amount of public funds that have been spent on paying the water and electricity bills at state-owned official residences is shown in the tables below.<\/p>\n

Cape Town residences\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The table below shows the annual amounts paid for electricity and water for the homes of ministers and deputy ministers combined since 2019.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\n2019\/20<\/th>\n2020\/21<\/th>\n2021\/22<\/th>\n2022\/23<\/th>\nTotal<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Electricity<\/td>\nR5 119 892<\/td>\nR5 116 076<\/td>\nR4 895 002<\/td>\nR3 206 049<\/td>\nR18 337 019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Water<\/td>\nR2 278 388<\/td>\nR2 124 544<\/td>\nR2 398 891<\/td>\nR690 951<\/td>\nR7 492 674<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\nR7 398 280<\/td>\nR7 240 620<\/td>\nR7 293 893<\/td>\nR3 897 000<\/td>\nR25 829 693<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Pretoria residences<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the department failed to provide an annual breakdown for these official residences, it did provide a total estimate for both ministers and deputy ministers since 2019, including the cost incurred for water and electricity and alternative power supply.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Position<\/th>\nWater and electricity<\/th>\nAlternative power supply<\/th>\nTotal<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Minister<\/td>\nR5 753 334<\/td>\nR2 000 000<\/td>\nR7 753 334<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deputy minister<\/td>\nR16 325 144<\/td>\nR5 040 000<\/td>\nR21 365 144<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\nR22 078 478<\/td>\nR7 040 000<\/td>\nR29 118 478<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

These bills, footed by the taxpayers of South Africa, are in accordance with the ministerial Handbook<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 a \u00a0guide to the ‘benefits and privileges that members of the cabinet are entitled to.<\/p>\n

According to the Handbook, members are entitled to free water and electricity (up to R5,000 a month) and generators for ministerial homes, which former public works minister Patricia De Lille has noted cost the government R2.6 million at the end of 2022 alone.<\/p>\n

Additional perks include luxury vehicles, VIP protection, and international travel.<\/p>\n

This is on top of the fact that these homes have also cost taxpayers almost R1 billion\u00a0as of 2023, according to the department property valuations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 97 state-owned homes for ministers and deputy ministers in South Africa are valued at a combined R967 million<\/strong> \u2013 meaning, on average, each ministerial home is valued at nearly R10 million.<\/p>\n

However, some of these homes cost more than double the average value. Of the 58 homes in Cape Town, 26 are occupied by cabinet ministers, valued at R608 million \u2013 working out to an average value of R23.4 million per home.<\/p>\n

This is a tough pill to swallow for many South Africans, considering that these perks are over and above the salaries<\/strong>\u00a0ministers and deputy ministers draw, which is\u00a0between R2 million and R2.4 million<\/strong>\u00a0annually.<\/p>\n

Adding salt to the wound is that energy regulator Nersa has approved<\/a> an 18.65% increase in electricity prices for 2023 \u2013 and a 12.74% hike for next year.<\/p>\n

According to Nersa, the decision was taken against the backdrop of challenging economic circumstances, including high-interest rates, low growth, high unemployment and load shedding.<\/p>\n

In determining the hikes, it tried to balance these various factors as well as Eskom’s service needs, it said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: How much it pays to be CEO at South Africa’s state-owned companies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent parliamentary Q&A revealed the total amount of public funds that have been spent on paying the water and electricity bills at state-owned official residences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-674991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674991"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675081,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674991\/revisions\/675081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}