Tennis and basketball courts, a golf course and perfect landscaping surround the multimillion-rand mansions hidden behind the high walls of the Bryntirion Estate in Arcadia, Pretoria, where President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers live.
Members of the SA Police Service are on 24-hour patrol, and strict rules are followed to gain access to the premises, which are not open to the public.
Across from the high walls are old blocks of flats, abandoned houses, embassies, law firms and the sound of hooting taxis that speed down the busy Pretorius Street.
The DA picketed outside the estate on Monday to show the country how top cabinet ministers live.
Behind the high gates and security is a different world, said DA shadow minister of public service and administration Leon Schreiber.
“There are 97 mansions like this in Pretoria and Cape Town. They live in houses worth R1bn in total ... They have dozens of staff members who do everything for them. They call them household aides and messengers. These are people who look after the needs of every ANC rock-star minister and deputy minister,” said Schreiber.
Schreiber said his party, had been compiling the costs of these perks, found it cost the taxpayer R387m a year to pay just the staff at presidential and ministerial homes.
As for ministerial and presidential bodyguards, their yearly salary cost to the state was R528m, he said.
While the country faces an energy crisis, the estate and surrounding areas never experience load-shedding.
City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba, however, said this was not because of preferential treatment but municipal compliance to keep the lights on at the Union Buildings, which is near the estate.
“This is public knowledge. It is because the [Bryntirion Estate] is supplied by the same substation which feeds the Union Buildings,” Bokaba told TimesLIVE Premium.
The DA plans to challenge the ministerial handbook to contest the millions that go into housing the president and senior ministers. DA leader John Steenhuisen said the handbook was not legislated by parliament but only changed by the president as he saw fit.
“We want to introduce the Cut Cabinet Perks Bill and get the public protector to declare the ministerial handbook unlawful. We have to reduce these perks which have to apply across the board. The president has one of the largest cabinets in the world, and we have to cut our costs accordingly and get the ministerial handbook scrapped,” he said.
With the general elections next year, Steenhuisen said should any of his party members end up in cabinet, none of them would occupy the presidential and ministerial homes.
Instead, the properties would be put up for sale.
“No DA minister will be living in Bryntirion Estate. If we get a majority and a strong position of a coalition, I would like to see a ‘for sale’ sign and the money redirected to build something to help South Africans and not ministers,” he said.
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