By Sibusiso Ngalwa
Political Bureau
The government will spend R150-million this year on housing for ministers, MPs and top government officials.
This would cover buying new houses - seven ministers are set to move in next month - as well as refurbishing existing residences.
This was revealed by Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge at a media briefing in Parliament yesterday.
Doidge would not say how many new houses had been bought, or reveal their cost.
However, it is understood that the department had asked estate agents to seek out homes in the R3m range in some of Cape Town's more upmarket areas.
Doidge said only 10 of the 33 cabinet ministers had opted to have their official homes in Cape Town - with the rest choosing Gauteng.
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The R150m, he said, would buy new properties, furniture, refurbish present housing stock and pay for routine maintenance of the residences.
"We have had to acquire additional housing stock... the process has begun.
"We've been very cautious in the purchasing of assets, ensuring that it happens in line with supply chain management," said Doidge.
Addressing the same press conference Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said the cabinet had tasked him and Doidge to handle future queries about ministers' cars and houses respectively.
Baloyi defended the expensive car purchases, saying that the ministers' work and travel necessitated the pricey vehicles.
"Ministers have to be highly mobile and travel from one place to another. Travelling long distances also goes with the need to provide a conducive environment for them to do their work," he said.
The vehicles, said Baloyi, had been bought within the guidelines of the ministerial handbook.
Pressed on whether the purchasing of cars would be downgraded, Baloyi said the task team was open to suggestions.
"Downgrading is not the outright position that you take. You need to assess the whole environment.
"We will look at various factors and then if downgrading will be the way to go.
"It's a possibility but not the (final position)," he said.
A number of ministers have attracted public criticism for spending millions on luxury German cars - some fitted with extras like DVD players, sunroofs, parking sensors and sporty steering wheels.
Meanwhile, the two ministers gave very little information about the government's plans to review the ministerial handbook, which guides the ministers' spending of public funds.
Baloyi, Doidge and Collins Chabane, Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, have been tasked to review the handbook.
"We are looking at how best we can administer the implementation of the ministerial handbook," said Baloyi.
The review, he said, would be complete "soon".
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on October 29, 2009
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