Hannah Omarjee | homarjee@radioislam.co.za
28 March 2023 | 17:00 CAT
2 min read

Photo Credit: Mareola Media

Millions of taxpayers’ rands are being spent on generators and inverters for the official homes of government ministers, as necessary facilities such as hospitals and schools struggle to keep the lights on. The new Minister of Public Works, Sihle Zikalala, made this declaration in response to written questions from DA MP Dr Leon Schreiber. The Department of Public Works revealed that since 2019 it had spent more than R7 million to procure generators and inverters for the Minister’s homes in wealthy suburbs of Pretoria, such as Waterkloof.

Aside from generators and inverters, an additional R3.4 million was spent on improving the security of the homes of ministers and deputy ministers in the wealthy suburbs of Cape Town.

Two official homes are assigned to each of the 29 ministers and their 37 deputies. One is in Pretoria, the seat of the national government, and the other is in Cape Town, where the parliament is located.

Regarding the ministerial handbook, taxpayer-sponsored electricity and water bills for ministers and their deputies are limited to R5,000 per household monthly. Any amounts exceeding this will be the personal responsibility of the Minister. Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa tried to remove this stipulation from the handbook. However, he quickly revised the handbook following public outrage over the free provision of water and electricity to ministers when Eskom’s tariffs skyrocketed amid the debilitating load shedding.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with host Annisa Essack here.