The Department of Public works is making plans to spend R25 million to refurbish kitchens at Parliament.
But the Speaker of the National Assembly Thandi Modise has strongly objected to this, her office confirmed on Monday.
“She objected to the excessively unjustifiable costs projected on the building plan, she said, not under her watch, particularly given the socio-economic hardship under which most South Africans live,” her office said.
Modise raised her objection in a briefing by the department on Friday to Parliament’s standing committee on financial management, regarding infrastructure upgrades to the parliamentary precinct and the accommodation villages housing members of the legislature.
The plans included the renovations to the kitchens that serve parliamentary restaurants, a R68m upgrade to security at Parliament that would include an extension of the fence surrounding the precinct, and almost R100m to be spent on upgrading MPs homes.
DA MP Tim Brauteseth called the proposed expenditure at Parliament and the department’s overall budget for so-called prestige projects of R423m “ridiculous”.
He said what was particularly egregious was the department’s admission that upgrades would be done to all MPs’ homes, regardless of the need for repair.
Faced with the committee’s objections, the department agreed to conduct house-by-house evaluations and only commence with repairs that were actually required.