The DA has been mum on whether it will take up ministerial benefits afforded to its executive members in the government of national unity (GNU).
The party has swallowed its previously sharp tongue on the matter after its own members were appointed to cabinet.
The DA's long-standing criticism of the perks afforded to ministers has been cause for debate, the party having previously decried the frills and fanfare billed to taxpayers, dismissing them as “freebies”.
During the sixth administration, the DA's Leon Shreiber, now home affairs minister, wrote to former public works and administration minister Patricia de Lille over ministerial perks.
Why should every minister and deputy minister who presided over the collapse of every public service and government department continue to live like rock stars?
— New home affairs minister Leon Schreiber, then a DA MP
In her reply to the DA’s request for information, De Lille said 97 homes were occupied by ministers and deputy ministers in Cape Town and Pretoria.
“In Cape Town, 26 ministers and 32 deputy ministers live in state-owned residences. In Pretoria, 14 ministers and 25 deputy ministers occupy these mansions. The homes in Cape Town are worth nearly R830m while the homes in Pretoria are valued at R137m.”
At the time, Shreiber and his party expressed outrage at the R967m spent to house “ANC ministers and deputy ministers”.
“On average, each ministerial house is valued at nearly R10m, which means every ANC minister and deputy minister lives in two mansions (one in Cape Town and one in Pretoria) valued at a collective R20m — courtesy of South African taxpayers,” he said.
The DA, as the official opposition, was outraged at the privileges and “freebies” afforded to members of cabinet, including cars, water and electricity.
“Cabinet cadres are entitled to these houses in terms of the ministerial handbook, which also provides them with freebies that include four luxury vehicles each, VIP protection and international travel perks.
“To shield these ANC cadres from the electricity crisis their corruption created — in which at least two senior ANC cabinet members have been implicated by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter — ministers and deputy ministers also receive free water and electricity (up to R5,000 per month) and De Lille spent R2.6m on generators for ministerial homes,” read the letter.
The former opposition member previously slammed the ministerial handbook as “illegal”, claiming it is difficult to justify.
“There is no provision in law that provides for the existence of a handbook that doles out R1bn houses to cabinet cadres. Why should every minister and deputy minister who presided over the collapse of every public service and government department continue to live like rock stars?”
Shortly after this parliamentary response, the DA said it filed a complaint with the public protector to investigate whether the perks handed out to cadres in terms of the handbook are illegal.
The party vowed to protect taxpayers from this “abuse”, using an amendment to the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act that would make the handbook subject to parliamentary oversight.
“The DA will not rest until we have eradicated the practice that sees President Cyril Ramaphosa abusing taxpayers with impunity to finance perks for an ANC cabinet that has plunged our country into stage 6 load-shedding and economic devastation.”
Schreiber, who dubbed the beneficiaries of the handbook “cabinet cadres”, is among those expected to also receive a house in the seventh administration as he, with 11 of his colleagues including party leader John Steenhuisen, assume office.
DA spokesperson and newly sworn-in communications minister Solly Malatsi said: "We will have to make a decision on this going forward but our principled position is that whatever fat we can do without, we will take out.
"The party has encouraged all of us to work with the bare minimum essentials that enable us to do our work and let go of what is not a necessity."
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