Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

4 min read | 20:20 pm CAT

No minister in the bloated Cabinet of President Cyril Ramaphosa is paying anything for their electricity. Neither suffers from the same load-shedding woes as the rest of the country. This comes after the President changed the rules governing Cabinet’s perks in April this year to fully exempt ministers and their deputies from paying for any municipal services at their official residences.

Joining the discussion with Radio Islam International is the DA’s Leon Schreiber, DA MP and party spokesperson on public service and administration. He said each of the ministers and deputy ministers receives two official residences, one in Cape Town and the other in Pretoria.

This amounts to 126 properties, and taxpayers are now footing the entire bill for water and electricity.

According to Schreiber, these are the same ministers who have failed to fix Eskom’s water supply issues and have robbed South Africans of excess to reliable electricity and water.

The government owns the properties. It’s not a minister’s private house but an official house they get to live in for free during their cabinet years.

The perks are contained in the ministerial handbook. Schreiber said the handbook is a tool for patronage in the DA’s view as it allows the President to, by the stroke of a pen, forcing South Africans to pay for benefits for the cabinet members.

He says, “the handbook includes the purchase of luxury vehicles up to R800 000, free flights, services done at their home and now the latest of free water and electricity.”

According to Schreiber, the water and electricity expenses were previously kept at R500 monthly. The cap has now been completely removed. This follows the department of public works run by Minister Patricia De Lille earlier this year installed generators at each of the same official residences costing R2.6 million.

He said the combination of these all together paints an alarming picture of ministers being exempt from the consequences of failed governance.

Adding, “Taxpayers been forced to pay for these kind of luxuries.”

Meanwhile, The DA will be taking firm action against these perks and is finalizing the exact course of action to challenge the entire ministerial handbook of exempted ministerial benefits.

Listen below to the interview with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie and the DA’s Leon Schreiber on Radio Islam’s podcast.