AT least R738-million and counting - that is the cost of housing South Africa's 66 cabinet ministers, the president, his deputy and other top officials.
Scandals around buying homes, sprucing them up or covering the cost of hotels and lodges have been the biggest headache for the Department of Public Works this year.
The government has either spent or allocated R738-million since 2009, as well as over the next three years, on buying, refurbishing and renovating official residences.
Today the Sunday Times can reveal that Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Dikobe "Ben" Martins, has spent at least five months living in a hotel and a month at a five-star B&B while waiting for a government-issued house in Pretoria.
Martins, who joined the cabinet in November last year, racked up a bill of R421,256 for his Pretoria accommodation: at the Sheraton Hotel and the B&B.
Although the department did not reveal which room type he occupied, the rates for a de luxe room and a standard club room at the Sheraton for last weekend, excluding laundry, were R3,015 and R4,015, respectively.
Martins's bill comes hot on the heels of last week's admission by Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson that she had not "wildly imagined" that her 28-day stay at a luxury Sandton, Johannesburg, guesthouse would cost taxpayers R420,000.
Joemat-Pettersson, Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele, sacked former cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Sicelo Shiceka, and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, have been slammed over revelations of lavish hotel stays while either waiting for official residences or needing accommodation when attending meetings.
Martins said the Department of Public Works had shown him a house they had bought in Pretoria and were busy renovating, and told him he would have to wait six or seven months before he could occupy it.
"But the long and the short of it was that I had to stay in a hotel and B&Bs." He is still waiting for his new home.
He was adamant, however, that he had not been responsible for choosing the Sheraton, and he lamented the inconvenience of having to live in a hotel.
"It's a painful exercise to stay and work in a hotel; you have to leave most of your stuff at your office. You have a lot of confidential files."
He said that although he made it a point not to have his children staying at the hotel, his wife had joined him "once or twice".
John Steenhuisen, the Democratic Alliance's shadow minister of public works, said the R738-million spent on official accommodation was a "very conservative estimate".
- Timeslive
Scandals around buying homes, sprucing them up or covering the cost of hotels and lodges have been the biggest headache for the Department of Public Works this year.
The government has either spent or allocated R738-million since 2009, as well as over the next three years, on buying, refurbishing and renovating official residences.
Today the Sunday Times can reveal that Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Dikobe "Ben" Martins, has spent at least five months living in a hotel and a month at a five-star B&B while waiting for a government-issued house in Pretoria.
Martins, who joined the cabinet in November last year, racked up a bill of R421,256 for his Pretoria accommodation: at the Sheraton Hotel and the B&B.
Although the department did not reveal which room type he occupied, the rates for a de luxe room and a standard club room at the Sheraton for last weekend, excluding laundry, were R3,015 and R4,015, respectively.
Martins's bill comes hot on the heels of last week's admission by Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson that she had not "wildly imagined" that her 28-day stay at a luxury Sandton, Johannesburg, guesthouse would cost taxpayers R420,000.
Joemat-Pettersson, Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele, sacked former cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Sicelo Shiceka, and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, have been slammed over revelations of lavish hotel stays while either waiting for official residences or needing accommodation when attending meetings.
Martins said the Department of Public Works had shown him a house they had bought in Pretoria and were busy renovating, and told him he would have to wait six or seven months before he could occupy it.
"But the long and the short of it was that I had to stay in a hotel and B&Bs." He is still waiting for his new home.
He was adamant, however, that he had not been responsible for choosing the Sheraton, and he lamented the inconvenience of having to live in a hotel.
"It's a painful exercise to stay and work in a hotel; you have to leave most of your stuff at your office. You have a lot of confidential files."
He said that although he made it a point not to have his children staying at the hotel, his wife had joined him "once or twice".
John Steenhuisen, the Democratic Alliance's shadow minister of public works, said the R738-million spent on official accommodation was a "very conservative estimate".
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that public works managed accommodation and each department was responsible for its own arrangements.
"I don't really want to get into it," Gordhan said.
- Timeslive
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