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The Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, has requested that the Department’s Director-General, Sifiso Mdakane, conduct a comprehensive investigation into the 6,238 state-owned residential properties allocated to various User Departments and occupied by government officials across the country, and to develop a comprehensive strategy for the disposal of properties that are not required for legitimate operational purposes. 

Of these properties, 3,626 are situated in KwaZulu-Natal, compared with 566 in the Western Cape and 407 in Gauteng. The Department further recorded that an estimated R39.6 million was spent from its Day-to-Day Maintenance budget during the 2025/26 financial year, although the available expenditure information relates to only 108 of the 6,238 properties. The Director-General has therefore been requested to submit a comprehensive report to the Minister within 30 days. 

The report must include a complete assessment of the 3,626 properties situated in KwaZulu-Natal, identifying the User Department to which each property has been allocated, its intended purpose and operational need, the capacity in which the current occupant resides at the property and which properties should be retained, repurposed or disposed of.  

The report must separately identify properties occupied by officials of the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure and determine 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 must further 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. 
• Whether the rentals charged are market-related and whether the necessary approvals were obtained for any deviations. 
• Whether officials occupying work facility or official housing qualify for such accommodation under their conditions of employment and whether the appropriate fringe benefit tax treatment has been applied. 
• Whether User Departments have surrendered properties that are no longer required for service delivery and whether any surplus properties should be repurposed, redeveloped, disposed of or released from the State’s portfolio.

“It is my view that the State should not own more than 6,000 residential properties for government officials, particularly when many officials already receive housing allowances, subsidies or other housing-related benefits as part of their remuneration packages. Unless there is a clear and compelling operational reason for the State to retain a residential property, it should be sold. The default position cannot be that the State indefinitely carries the maintenance, rates and other costs of thousands of residential properties while the public fiscus remains under immense pressure,” Minister Macpherson said. 

“We need to establish who is occupying each property, the basis on which it was allocated and whether it still serves a legitimate public purpose. Where properties are underutilised, unnecessary or no longer required for government operations, they 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 is central to our commitment to use public assets for the public good and build a better South Africa.” 

 

Issued by Department of Public Works and Infrastructure