Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde will comment within the next 30 days on the Public Protector’s report into the police’s lease agreement for Pretoria’s Middestad Building.
Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria, Mahlangu-Nkabinde said she was still reading the report, released last month by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, and would comment once she had fully studied it.
She respected the Public Protector, and denied a media report that quoted her saying the report was “shallow and superficial”.
The Sunday Times reported last year that police National Commissioner Bheki Cele had signed a R500-million lease for the Pretoria building with property tycoon Roux Shabangu, allegedly without following tender procedures.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde said she had been in contact with Shabangu.
“He took advantage of what all South Africans are doing when they think they have a problem. They would phone and say ‘Minister, I would like to brief you about my side of the story.’ So I met Mr Shabangu twice or three times. I did meet him.”
Improper conduct
Madonsela found Cele was guilty of improper conduct and maladministration when the police entered into the lease.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde had been in possession of the Public Protector’s report for the past month.
Madonsela found the public works department’s accounting officer was also guilty of improper conduct and maladministration. She said the lease was invalid. The public works department’s decision to continue with the deal, despite legal opinion advising against it, amounted to maladministration, she said
Madonsela recommended that Cabinet, at its first meeting, demand an explanation from Mahlangu-Nkabinde on why she decided to continue with the lease, despite legal opinion to the contrary.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde also announced on Tuesday she had halted refurbishment of President Jacob Zuma’s Pretoria residence, Mahlamba Ndlopfu.
“It is a residence that really needed to be worked on some years ago. We haven’t done that and we were in the process of doing it, but the cost is what has caused us to stop.
“We felt that with the R177-million that is earmarked we could do quite a lot of saving. There is no house that is built for R177-million.”
She was busy determining what Zuma required, and said it would be a cost-effective price.
In-house expertise
Mahlangu-Nkabinde denied reports that a multimillion-rand elite military hospital was being built for Cabinet members at the Bryntirion ministerial estate in Pretoria.
“We are not building a hospital at the Bryntirion Estate.”
There was, however, a need to accommodate medical staff based at the estate, who she said were currently working out of caravans. The department was considering housing staff at the unused Marula House on the estate.
“I know that there are figures flying all over the newspapers, like R42-million and R67 million, whatever … We are not going to be using any cent in that regard.”
The minister said the department would use its own in-house expertise to refurbish Marula House, should it be decided to accommodate medical staff there.
Referring to a R93-million house that had been built as a VIP residence, and that had been “earmarked” for the country’s deputy president, she said the project has been completed by the time she took office.
“I do understand there is an outcry of exorbitant figures and I also agree.”
There was currently an investigation under way to see “if we got our money’s worth”. — Sapa