DA wants bill amended to stop ministers’ ‘lavish’ lifestyle

The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced it is putting together a cut Cabinet perks bill during a picket at the luxurious ministerial estate of Bryntirion in Tshwane yesterday.

DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration Dr Leon Schreiber said the ministerial handbook ripped off every South African.

R387 million a year

“The ministers stay in 97 mansions in Pretoria and Cape Town to the value of a billion rand, with dozens of staff members that do everything for them at the cost of R387 million a year,” he said.

Schreiber said the DA would take the bill to Parliament. “If you are gatvol, you must unite with the DA and support the bill,” he said.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said there were two worlds in South Africa – the Cabinet’s world and the real world. “In the real world, 42% of our citizens do not have the dignity of a job.”

READ MORE: DA protests outside ministers’ houses, wants bill to cut their perks

Sad realities

“In the real world, only 2% of our citizens can put three meals on the table daily for their children. “In the real world, in 30-odd years of democracy, young children die in pit toilets. In the real world, 72 South Africans are murdered every day.

“In the real world, the lights are switched off for an extended period, sewage runs in the streets and the water goes off for days on end. “In the Cabinet world, there is no shortage of housing, everybody drives luxury cars and you don’t have to worry about safety because you have 24-hour protection from the police,” said Steenhuisen.

Themba Mguni from Winterveld was happy the DA was exposing the ministers’ lavish lifestyles. Steenhuisen said it was unacceptable that the president promised to reduce his Cabinet and cut costs but did not.

“We see expansion after expansion. When the belt gets tighter, the ministerial handbook is secretly changed to make life easier for these ministers,” he said.

Lavish lifestyle

Steenhuisen said the property where they picketed boasted 15 tennis courts, a basketball court, several swimming pools, a golf course and a helipad.

“When we are in government in 2024, the sign on this wall here is for sale. I live in Pretoria but I didn’t know of this place where they are spending our tax money.

“I also didn’t know they do not get load shedding. Where I come from we are on stage 6 and sometimes we don’t have electricity for up to eight hours,” he said.

The ministers were eating taxpayers’ money while being protected by the president, said Mguni. “How do they keep adding ministers and now they add the former Tshwane mayor as the minister of electricity after he left Tshwane in a mess.”

Mguni said that come to the 2024 elections, the ANC must go. “I am a 38-year-old, but I still depend on my mother’s pension money to survive,” he said.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said: “The Ramaphosa administration has made themselves guiltier of ambulance and comfort than the Zuma administration”.

Political analyst Khanya Vilakazi said the ministerial handbook should be revealed.

READ MORE: Ministers don’t have to pay a cent for water and electricity – report