Action will be taken against Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka if he is found to have misused public funds and state resources, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

"That matter has been handled very actively... and once we have a conclusion we will take action," Zuma told reporters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.

Shiceka, who has been on sick leave since February, allegedly used taxpayers' money for flights and luxury hotel accommodation, and used state resources to build his private home in the Eastern Cape.

The Sunday Times reported that municipal trucks had been used to ferry water to the building site at Ingquza village, while no water was being delivered to most of the surrounding community. It is further alleged that a R32-million tarred road was being routed past Shiceka's house, while thousands of residents in the area used dirt roads to reach their villages. It was claimed that Shiceka's house would be among the first to get electricity. He became the first minister since 1994 to be probed by Parliament's ethics committee.

The public protector was asked to investigate his allegedly spending R335 000 on a trip to Switzerland to visit his girlfriend in prison, R640 000 in one year to stay at the One & Only hotel in Cape Town, and R160 000 in eight months flying his extended family around the country.