Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
23 September 2024 | 15:49 CAT

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure found some of the homes allocated to ministers in a “dreadful state”, with one even used to run a taxi business. Image/IOL

Dean Macpherson, the recently appointed minister, said the ministers left their properties in the Prestige Unit in a dreadful state after finishing their tenure.

Photographs painted pictures of carpets ripped out, fixtures taken, and cupboards removed.

The minister says luxury homes allocated to ministers and deputy ministers will be inspected because some properties have been stolen and damaged extensively.

Meanwhile, Minister MacPherson still expects the full report on the number of deplorable houses left.

“Whether it’s one or ten we have got to build a culture, where particularly Ministers of State, respect State property and ensure that the property made available to them is looked after and returned in a decent state,” Minister MacPherson told Radio Islam International.

However, Minister MacPherson pointed out that the deplorable state of properties, including buildings and land, is seen nationwide.

“We just don’t have a culture where we respect State property and I am on a mission to change that culture,” he added.

In one instance, the property was used to run a taxi business.

“It is extraordinary that there was no intervention despite the complaints from neighbours and even department officials and the state that the house had been left in, taxis been parked on the verge outside and was effectively running from those houses,” MacPherson said.

He pointed out that he is now looking at ways and measures to mitigate against that, including ensuring there is an incoming and outgoing inspection, just like a contractual lease between the landlord and tenant, when renting a property, with financial consequences if the property is returned in its original condition.

According to spokesperson James de Villiers, the unit owns 97 state homes valued at about R830m in Cape Town and R137m in Pretoria.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round Uo with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Minister Dean MacPherson here.