Durban - Trade union federation Cosatu has called for the ministerial handbook to be scrapped in the wake of Parliament being told that more than R7 million has been spent on generators and inverters for ministers and their deputies as the country experienced its worst period of load shedding.
New Public Works Minister Sihle Zikalala, in reply to a parliamentary question last week, said the department had, since 2019, spent R7.04 million on alternative power supply systems at ministerial homes.
There was outrage last year when it was revealed that President Cyril Ramaphosa had altered the handbook, which outlines perks for ministers and deputies, to not only allow them free utilities, but to also allocate more support staff which would see the expenditure on the budget item rising to more than R80 million per year. However, the proposals were canned after the outcry.
Ramaphosa then ordered a review of the ministerial handbook but Cosatu said the executive should not expect to live in comfort while the rest of the country suffered.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla urged all South Africans to support their call.
“The reality is that these perks have attracted charlatans and the worst in politics. If people want comfort, then they must work in the private service and get these comforts. They are distracted from the objective of delivering services to the people of the country and that is why the handbook must be done away with.”
Pamla said the executive should be provided with services, must be paid and must have the tools to do their jobs.
“Beyond that, there should be no perks. Society is getting poorer, we have collapsing municipalities and all of this is happening under the watch of people who are comfortable with all these perks,” said Pamla.
Zikalala was responding to written questions by DA MP Leon Schreiber, where he revealed that more than R58 million had been paid for electricity, water and security upgrades at 97 ministerial homes in Pretoria and Cape Town.
Schreiber said it was shocking that this figure included more than R7 million spent on alternative power supply for the homes of ministers and deputy ministers. “While the people suffer, the ANC’s ministers lounge around the swimming pools of their luxury mansions receiving an uninterrupted supply of power, free water and electricity, and an impenetrable wall of security – all funded on the back of a country where more than 30 million people live in desperate poverty and face violent crime.”
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said they did not believe the handbook needed to be scrapped, but a review was necessary. “It does need to be reviewed and certain conditions need to be put in place under which privileges and benefits should be regulated. The process they followed last year was not transparent.”
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said there was a need for a serious rethink on whether a ministerial handbook was needed.
“Public servants should be using public facilities. In other countries there is an expectation that ministers will use public facilities because that is the only way to ensure they will concern themselves about the standards in those facilities,” said Seepe. If ministers were not personally concerned about what was happening to state hospitals and schools, they could ignore the reality of many South Africans, he said.