R600 million for upkeep of MPs' and ministers' homes, Parly hears - IOL

Taxpayers have been coughing up R600m over five years to keep the homes of MPs and ministers in Cape Town maintained.

The hefty bill covered three parliamentary villages housing MPs from outside the city, as well as ministers’ official residences, all under one public works and infrastructure department contract.

Parliament was set to take over the villages from the department.

Simon Mashigo, head of Parliament's institutional support services division, told an ad hoc committee on Friday that public works had not provided a breakdown of the costs.

The contract was due to expire in May next year, but Mashigo said it might have to be extended until the new law being drafted by the committee officially handed the villages to Parliament.

"The current contract the [department] has signed with the facilities management contractor is R600m over a period of five years, which covers all parliamentary villages but also includes the ministerial residences," Mashigo said.

"They have not given us a breakdown in terms of how much relates to the three parliamentary villages.

"All in all, it is R600m for all the residences.

"The facilities management contract is going to expire next year in May, and the bus contract has expired but was extended for a period of one year.

"In the transitional arrangements, we need to either make decisions on extending such contracts until such time that the functions have been taken over by Parliament."

The committee's draft Parliamentary Villages Bill, published in the Government Gazette on July 24, would scrap the 1998 law governing the villages and make Parliament, instead of the department, responsible for managing and maintaining Acacia Park in Goodwood, Laboria Park in Belhar and Pelican Park in Zeekoevlei.

Mashigo said the department had raised concerns that Parliament was encroaching on its constitutional mandate, and the dispute might have to be settled at the highest level of government.

"There seems to be a contestation on the side of [the public works department].

"It may come to a point where [President Cyril Ramaphosa] has to be engaged, or the leader of government business, so that that issue is resolved and it is not seen as Parliament encroaching on the mandate of [the department].

"The issue of encroachment of the mandate as a constitutional provision seems to be a sticky point which needs to be clarified."

Mashigo said the City of Cape Town owned the land on which Laboria Park stood, which could limit Parliament’s ability to take full control of the village.

"If Parliament becomes the custodian and manages Laboria Park, and at some point wishes to dispose of Laboria Park, the limitation would be placed on us on the basis that we do not own the land.

"If there's any upgrade that we have to do, we will be required to get the power of attorney from the City of Cape Town before we can even conduct any planning."

Police told the committee that officers guarding the villages could not open criminal cases there, leaving residents to report crimes at the nearest police station.

"The case, unfortunately, still has to be opened by the police station," Brigadier Debbie Peterson of SAPS protection and security services said.

"We do not have that capability at the village itself, at the control point.

"With regard to firearms, it must be handed in, and we actually ask them to hand it in at the nearest police station because at all the villages we do not have a storage place for firearms.

"We do not have dedicated or enough canine units to have at each village because of the shortage, so they roam around between the three parliamentary villages."

ANC MP Nonkosi Queenie Mvana told police the phones and intercoms residents used to call them did not work, and that MPs had reported it repeatedly without any action.

"I just wanted to check whether the presenters are aware that in villages, the phones for the police are not working.

"We also have the intercoms to connect to the police, and we are really unable to do that.

"So, if you've got a challenge whilst you are in the village, you are really not aware where to report and how to report that."

Peterson said only one phone had been faulty.

"There was one telephone that was not working at that point, and it was the one at Pelican Park.

"Maybe we should actually revisit it and go back and just confirm that it is working."

The committee received 13 written submissions on the draft bill, and none opposed it.

A member of the public identified in the committee's analysis as Ms Brown asked whether it was fair to spend millions of rand on new houses for MPs in Cape Town while young people in towns such as Upington struggled.

Upington is a town in the Northern Cape on the banks of the Orange River, about 400km west of Kimberley. 

It is the region’s main commercial and agricultural centre, with its economy driven largely by farming, particularly grapes, wine and dried fruit, as well as tourism and services.

A youth organisation compared the police protection at the villages with Manenberg and Heideveld, where it said thousands of households shared one under-resourced police station.

The committee's content adviser, Dr Anneke Clarke, said Brown's submission and two others like it might not have appreciated why MPs were housed in the villages.

"The commonality of the first three submissions is the assumption that members of Parliament will unfairly benefit from accommodation.

"They might not have fully appreciated how the accommodation is actually linked to the mandate and the operational needs of Parliament.

"The intention of the bill is definitely not to create a dedicated SAPS unit within the villages."

Clarke said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana raised the question of tax in his submission.

"The Minister of Finance does say Parliament should seek advice and guidance from the SA Revenue Service on whether there's tax implications for the provision of accommodation to members of Parliament and other staff, which may be regarded as a fringe benefit.

"He does say that implementation is dependent on the identification of the property, including movable assets relating to those villages, and the transfer of those assets."

Public service and administration minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi told the committee his department would help move the public works staff who run the villages to Parliament.

"What we expect is that our department really assists Parliament as this process is unfolding, so that we close all the gaps.

"We must make sure that we do things accordingly in terms of the Labour Relations Act."

The public works department was given until next week Tuesday to file its own submission and will brief the committee next week Friday.

The committee planned to adopt the final bill on November 27.