Top parly official ‘owes R78,000’
● Parliament’s acting CEO has racked up nearly R80,000 in rent arrears with the department of public works (DPW) after granting herself a generous “unilateral” discount on an upmarket apartment in the Cape Town city centre.
The Sunday Times has established that Baby Tyawa, who this week was among those interviewed to occupy the parliamentary post full-time, has been living in the apartment owned by the department despite the fact that the legislature has no policy allowing for this.
While the department asked her to pay rent of R16,000 a month, Tyawa opted to pay only R10,000, resulting in her incurring arrears to the tune of R78,000 over her stay.
And Tyawa has now written to public works saying she can no longer afford R10,000-a-month rent and wants the rent slashed to R5,500.
This despite her salary amounting to R3.2m in the past financial year.
Tyawa has been the acting secretary to parliament, effectively its CEO, since June 2017 after the suspension and subsequent dismissal of Gengezi Mgidlana.
Her smart apartment is in Queen Victoria Street opposite the historic Company’s Gardens, just a stone’s throw from parliament.
Tyawa features on a list that emerged last week that names more than 1,000 current and former ministers, MPs and senior government officials who public works is pursuing for rent arrears totalling R8m.
She said this week she had balked at paying the R16,000 a month that public works had set as the rent, and no-one had objected.
“When I rented that apartment, they charged me R16,000. I said to them, ‘Based on what? What policy can you actually give to me, because your apartments stay empty for years. At least if I rent it, this is how much I will pay, which is the rental,’ ” she said.
“I said I don’t want a subsidy, I want to pay rental. Then I paid the R10,000 which they didn’t say, ‘No, you are wrong.’ ”
Tyawa said she had decided to pay a reduced rent because there was no standard fee and the public works figure was “unfair”.
“They couldn’t explain what informs that rental. I don’t know how they work out these things because some people stay for free, others pay R250, so I just said, ‘This is what I will pay.’ ”
She said she has never received monthly statements from public works and was uncertain whether her letters requesting a review of her rent had ever been received.
She forwarded the Sunday Times proof that she has had a standing electronic funds transfer arrangement to pay her rent since January 2019.
The statement shows that she was paying R14,500 a month until March last year, after which she started paying R10,000.
In the documents and correspondence relating to the rental, which she shared with the Sunday Times, Tyawa included an e-mail to the department of public works requesting a further rent reduction.
“I have been paying rental that started at R16,000 per month, through EFT,” it says.
“I have noted that this rental is quite high in comparison to all the senior public servants who have DPW rental flats.
“It is against this assessment that I ask
that the rental be reduced to R5,500 per month. I have indeed been paying R10,000, after noticing that I, amongst many of the public service senior managers, am the only one who pays such an exorbitant rental.
“Hence my request to lower the rental to R5,500. I have kept to my payment, albeit lower than originally signed with the DPW,” she said.
It’s not clear how the department responded to this request.
Tyawa insisted that her arrangement with public works was private and had nothing to do with parliament as an institution.
Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo confirmed the institution had no policy allowing it to arrange long-term accommodation for full-time staff members permanently stationed in Cape Town.
Mothapo said parliament staff were required to make their own private accommodation arrangements.
“As these arrangements are reportedly between the DPW and the individual involved, the department would be better positioned to provide clarity on this and the relevant policy or legislative basis,” said Mothapo.
Imtiaz Fazel, the acting director-general of public works, said the accommodation of parliamentary officials was at the discretion of the DG, provided vacant premises existed.
Fazel said the department determined the rental amount through its property valuation unit or by doing a desktop valuation.
He confirmed that Tyawa was charged R16,000 but had “unilaterally” cut the rental to R10,000.