- Six former sessional officials are to be evicted after illegally occupying units at parliamentary villages in Cape Town.
- Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu reported the matter to Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille after the officials overstayed their welcome.
- In the 2021/22 financial year, R36.1 million was spent on refurbishing all three parliamentary villages.
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille wants six former sessional officials evicted for "illegally occupying" units at parliamentary villages in Cape Town.
The officials overstayed their welcome, prompting Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to report the matter to De Lille.
This emerged in De Lille's response to a written parliamentary question from DA MP Samantha Graham.
Graham asked De Lille how often the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) audits the occupancy of the houses occupied by sessional workers at the parliamentary villages.
She also wanted to know the occupation period for sessional workers.
De Lille said the DPWI conducts annual occupancy audits of the parliamentary villages after all designation letters of sessional officials are received from client departments.
De Lille said:
She said her department would commence with the occupancy audit at the start of next month.
Early in June, DPWI officials briefed the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure on the progress of a project to refurbish the parliamentary villages.
Mzwandile Sazona, chief director of prestige policy, said the project was aimed at refurbishing 245 units across three villages - Acacia Park, Laboria Park and Pelican Park.
In the 2019/20 financial year, the project expenditure was R3.7 million.
"The funds were spent on planning stages and no houses could be renovated as the contractor had not yet been appointed," Sazona said.
In 2020-21, the expenditure was R10.6 million.
According to Sazona, the expenditure was on six months of construction work, including consulting fees and implementing agent management fees.
"In 2021/22, R36.1 million was spent on construction works, consulting fees and implementing agent management fees. Total expenditure on the project currently stood at R50.4 million of the budgeted R105.6 million. At the end of April 2022, the overall progress on the project was 47%," he said.
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