The poor management of state-owned buildings is costing the country's taxpayers millions of rand every year.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure owns approximately 81 000 buildings and 703 of these are vacant. Just the property tax on these vacant buildings alone amounted to R36 million in the 2018/19 financial year.
In addition to that, there is a great backlog with the upkeep of buildings and it will cost an estimated R74 billion to upgrade all the buildings.
And to make matters even worse, various government departments' monthly rent is outstanding for a period of more than five years. This amounts to a staggering R600 million. Even the Treasury is guilty of this as its outstanding rent amounts to R127 million.
If the Departments of Justice and Correctional Services and Higher Education are able to pay their rent, then the other departments can surely do it as well.
This crisis must be addressed and resolved urgently. The FF Plus will request the relevant portfolio committee to deal with the matter to ensure that the outstanding money is collected before the situation becomes irreversible.
The impact of these problems is circling outwards and we see it in our cities and towns on a daily basis where infrastructure is falling apart because it is not being maintained.
Taxpayers are fed up with the ANC's maladministration and mismanagement and the FF Plus will do everything in its power to bring the ANC government's destructive reign to an end.
Contact number: 060 556 4347
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