PIMP MY HOUSE
R226m on home reno for MPs
● The public works department is splurging more than R226m of taxpayers’ money to renovate the houses of MPs and parliamentary kitchens, perimeter fencing and “antiramming devices”, despite a rapidly shrinking public purse and plummeting tax revenue.
Details of the latest exorbitant sprucing up of facilities used by MPs were revealed on Friday during a meeting of the joint standing committee on the financial management of parliament.
MPs from both the DA and ANC have slammed the move as scandalous, wasteful and a slap in the face for poor South Africans who are struggling to cope with the economic effects of Covid-19.
Documents tabled by Mzwandile Sazona, chief director of the public works department’s prestige portfolio, during the meeting with the joint committee, which conducts oversight on the budget of parliament, showed:
● Renovations at 245 houses of MPs commenced last month at three parliamentary villages across Cape Town at a cost of R88.9m;
● A R25m tender was due to be issued at the end of October to “replace kitchen equipment and redesign kitchens” at four parliamentary restaurants;
A R68m tender would be issued next month for “security enhancement” around parliament, including a perimeter fence and “anti-ramming” devices;
An amount of R13.5m would be spent on sealing cracks and waterproofing;
A maintenance service provider would be relocated and a temporary permit office built at a cost of R18m; and
The refurbishment of eight lifts at a cost of R9.2m.
Sazona told MPs that parliamentary houses at Acacia Park in Goodwood, Laboria Park in Bellville and Pelican Park in Strandfontein needed to be renovated as they had become “dilapidated”.
He said the security enhancements in the parliamentary precinct, under 24-hour guard by the South African Police Service, had been recommended by the police after a security risk assessment in 2017.
Apart from the perimeter fencing and anti-ramming devices, public works wants to construct “structural canopies at all vehicular entrances of parliament”, automate all booms and upgrade surveillance equipment across the legislature’s complex.
Sazona said the project was conceptualised after a security assessment report by the SAPS, “which they do periodically. This is an accumulation of reports that were provided by SAPS over a period of years that were not fully implemented, and some were partially implemented.
“This is the first phase of the implementation of the security measures in parliament,” he said.
But some DA and ANC MPs were not convinced, slamming some of the items as unnecessary and wasteful.
“Why do we need this?” asked the DA’s Tim Brauteseth.
“When last did somebody try to ram their vehicle through parliament? We need to know why it’s necessary to spend R68.6mat parliament where parliament, as far as I’m concerned, is fairly secure at the moment. “In the Covid environment, can we really afford to spend all this money on the parliamentary villages?”
Brauteseth said that his house at Acacia Park did not need a facelift.
Thandi Modise, the speaker of the National Assembly, who also attended the meeting, said she was astounded that public works had set aside R25m to revamp four kitchens that cater for MPs. “Parliament is not going to spend R25m in refurbishing the kitchens of parliament in my name,” Modise said.
“Not if we can go in and look at the systems and get good industrial kitchens and whatever for far less than that, it’s not going to happen in my name.
“And I think every time I say it, the next time we meet up with public works, they insist. It cannot happen because it’s not something we can explain to South Africans.”
Modise said she would see to it that public works was no longer in charge or responsible for maintenance and construction projects at parliament.
She also told Sazona and his acting director-general, Imtiaz Fazel, that she was opposed to the idea of sealing parliament behind a perimeter fence.
“Public works continues to take us for a ride,” she said, and security enhancements at parliament should not “frighten people” just because it was a national key point.
“I’ve seen the parliament in Chile and Argentina. I don’t think we want our people to look like that, completely protected against civilians. It looks ugly, it actually creates animosity between the people who’ve actually sent you to the institution.”