The Department of Public Service and Administration has clarified that official residences where Cabinet ministers and their deputies reside are exempt from bouts of load shedding effected by struggling power utility Eskom.
THE DEPARTMENT of Public Service and Administration has clarified that official residences where Cabinet ministers and their deputies reside are exempt from bouts of load shedding effected by struggling power utility Eskom.
“Remember, just like the president’s residence is a national key point, those residences, because of the fact that they host members of the executive, they also become national key points. The risk of load shedding for those properties is eliminated,” department spokesperson Moses Mushi told Newzroom Afrika.
“Ministers, at their private residences still get load shedding. Security around our executives needs to always be protected.”
Mushi also said Cabinet ministers and their deputies do not pay for utilities like water and electricity while living at the official residences.
“Yes, it is true. The reason for that is because the residences occupied by members of the executive are official residences. The members do have their own homes in whatever province they might be coming from, where they continue to pay for their water and electricity. They are appointed at the pleasure of the president and are expected to work in Pretoria,” he said.
While in Pretoria, the members of the executive are “available to serve the nation”, he said.
“Government provides them with the official residences because we expect them to be available to the nation 24 hours without any disturbances or excuses to be able to go into communities at any time. As such, the government provides the official residences for them, as members of the executive,” he said.
Earlier, founding secretary-general of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Zwelinzima Vavi, expressed “disgust” over the government’s explanation on the provision of free water and electricity to members of the executive living at state-owned residences.
“We are disgusted, but we are not surprised. We are in the situation of the Animal Farm. If you look at the statement of the government, it is the most worrying statement we will ever come across. Basically, the government says we are not providing these free water and electricity services to people residing in their private residences, but we are providing to those we are also giving free houses,” Vavi told broadcaster eNCA.
“The houses are provided by the taxpayer and (the government is saying) we feel that there is nothing wrong with us giving them free houses, free electricity, free water, free rates that the municipality would have demanded if these were just ordinary people. And they see nothing wrong.”
He said it was ridiculous for the government, in that same statement, to urge the South African public to pay for the services.
“Can you believe it, that we live in a country where the ministers are simply living in their ivory towers, completely isolated from the crisis that is unfolding in the country.
“They were here when Saftu and countless other working-class formations staged a 24-hour national shutdown. People are saying they can no longer afford to live in this country. The cost of living is escalating beyond their salaries and government pensions,” he said.
Vavi said the government’s remarks were “extremely arrogant”.
“They know deep down in their hearts that what they are doing is wrong. They are betraying their own conscience. They are kicking the poor, the marginalised majority, who find themselves in deeper levels of poverty, thanks to their (government) programmes.
“They are kicking those people in their faces and they are basically showing us the middle finger to say we don’t care about what you are going through,” he said.
Reacting to weekend newspaper reports, the government issued a statement clarifying that “as stipulated in the Ministerial Handbook, which contains guidelines for members of the executive, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is responsible for the costs associated with the provision of water and electricity to any state-owned residence”.
Government spokesperson Phumla Williams said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure was bound by government prescripts to accommodate members of the executive.
“The Department of Public Service and Administration sets out the provisions in the Ministerial Handbook. These provisions are part of the package that comes with being a member of the executive as they are living in state-owned houses in service of the country,” she said.
