DA wants powers to put ‘luxurious’ Pretoria ministerial estate on market

The DA is eager to sell what it describes as a luxurious ministerial estate in Pretoria but this can only be realised if South Africans vote it into power in the 2024 national and provincial elections.

This was brought to light as the DA picketed outside Bryntirion Estate in the Capital City on Monday.

Addressing a group of protesters, DA leader John Steenhuisen said it was unacceptable that cabinet ministers live a luxurious lifestyle at Bryntirion Estate while millions of South Africans were facing various difficulties. He vowed to put the estate on sale should his party take over the government in the upcoming elections.

“I do not want ministers of a DA government to live like this,” Steenhuisen said, adding that the current ANC ministers are living like “rock stars” while the masses are struggling.

Steenhuisen said cabinet ministers lived a lavish lifestyle immune from hardships faced by ordinary South Africans daily. He added ministers ironically enjoy a high-class life style at the expense of the very same people who suffer and that such practice has to stop.

He said in South Africa, ministers live a life style that blinds them from seeing clearly what was really happening in the country while ordinary South Africans suffered.

“In the real world of ordinary South Africans some children are dying – a terrible death in pit toilets, 72 South Africans are murdered daily, children and women are vulnerable to gender-based violence, load-shedding was extended, sewerage flowed through the streets, water was cut off for days, the cost of living increased and people cannot feed, clothe and sustain themselves any longer.

“That is the real world of South Africans but it is very different from the cabinet world.”

He said the cabinet world was well depicted by what was happening inside Bryntirion Estate.

“In the cabinet world, there is no shortage of housing – everybody lives in a mansion,” he said, adding that each minister has two state mansions – one in Pretoria and another one in Cape Town.

“In the cabinet world, everybody drives luxury cars. One in Pretoria and another one in Cape Town.”

He said cabinet ministers did not have to worry about their safety and that of their families because they had 24-hour protection from the police.

Ministers did not have to “worry about load-shedding” because government provides them generators costing the country millions of rands, he said.

“I think the time has come to say to the government that it is inhumane and unacceptable for ministers to live a lavish lifestyle in Bryntirion Estate,” he said.

The estate has “15 tennis courts, a basketball court, several swimming pools, a golf course and a helipad”.

He said his party wanted to sell Bryntirion Estate and use that money for the benefit of the people of South Africa and not ministers.

The DA said it prided itself for selling the Tshwane mayoral mansion in 2017 and using the money generated from the sale to “the benefit of the Tshwane residents”.

Rekord made numerous attempts to get comment from the ANC but none had been received at the time of publication.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram