Pretoria: The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, has requested the department's Director-General, Sifiso Mdakane, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the 6,238 state-owned residential properties allocated to various user departments and those occupied by government officials across the country.
According to South African Government News Agency, Mdakane has also been tasked with developing a strategy for the disposal of properties that are not required for legitimate operational purposes. Among these properties, 3,626 are situated in KwaZulu-Natal, 566 in the Western Cape, and 407 in Gauteng. An estimated R39.6 million was spent from the maintenance budget during the 2025/26 financial year, although this expenditure information relates to only 108 of the properties.
The Director-General has been requested to submit a comprehensive report to the Minister within 30 days. This report must include a complete assessment of the properties situated in KwaZulu-Natal, identifying the user department to which each property has been allocated, its intended purpose, operational need, and the capacity in which the current occupant resides. The report should also determine which properties should be retained, repurposed, or disposed of.
The department stated that the report must separately identify properties occupied by department officials and ascertain whether the same allocation criteria, governance requirements, rental provisions, housing entitlement checks, and tax treatment applicable to other departments have been applied without exception or preferential treatment.
The investigation will examine the legislative and regulatory basis for the leasing of state-owned residences, including compliance with the Government Immovable Asset Management Act, the Public Finance Management Act, and applicable National Treasury regulations. It will also assess whether rentals charged are market-related and whether necessary approvals were obtained for any deviations.
Furthermore, the investigation will determine whether officials occupying work facilities or official housing qualify for such accommodation under their conditions of employment and whether the appropriate fringe benefit tax treatment has been applied. User departments must also have surrendered properties that are no longer required for service delivery, and any surplus properties should be repurposed, redeveloped, disposed of, or released from the State's portfolio.
Minister Macpherson emphasized that the State should not own more than 6,000 residential properties for government officials, especially when many officials receive housing allowances, subsidies, or other housing-related benefits as part of their remuneration packages. He highlighted the need to establish who is occupying each property, the basis on which it was allocated, and whether it still serves a legitimate public purpose. Unutilized or unnecessary properties should be released from the State's portfolio through a transparent and legally compliant disposal process.
Selling properties that the State does not need will reduce unnecessary expenditure, generate value for the public, and ensure that government focuses its limited resources on infrastructure and assets that directly support service delivery. This approach aligns with the commitment to use public assets for the public good and build a better South Africa.
