Question NW3398 to the Minister of Public Works
20 December 2018 - NW3398
Ryder, Mr D to ask the Minister of Public Works
(1)With regard to Acacia Park, Pelican Park and Laboria Parliamentary Villages, (a) what are the criteria used for qualifying and being allocated a housing unit in each village and (b) what number of housing units are (i) available, (ii) currently occupied by Members of Parliament, (iii) occupied by bona fide parliamentary employees who qualify and have been allocated a housing unit, (iv) occupied by persons who do not qualify to stay in the villages and (v) currently vacant; (2) (a) when last was an audit done on all persons having access to each park and (b) what were the findings of the audit?
Reply:
(1) (a) The Parliamentary Villages in Cape Town accommodate Members of Parliament, Party Officials and Sessional Officials. Each Political Party represented in Parliament is allocated housing units for their designated Members in proportion to the number of seats the Parties hold in Parliament. Sessional Officials are Government employees who have been designated as such by the Heads of Departments for purposes of performing Parliamentary duties during Parliamentary sessions.
(b) (i) There are 493 housing units at Acacia Park, 65 at Laboria Park and 108 at Pelican Park.
(ii) 224 housing units are occupied by Members of Parliament at Acacia Park, 55 at Laboria Park and 63 at Pelican Park.
(iii) In terms of the information at our disposal, there are 2 officials designated by Political Parties as aides to Members of Parliament. Our records indicate that there is no Parliamentary employee occupying a housing unit at the Parliamentary villages.
(iv) There are 3 housing units that have been identified to be occupied by persons who are not the registered occupants of those housing units.
(v) There are 50 vacant housing units at Acacia Park, 2 units at Laboria Park and 11 at Pelican Park.
(2) (a) The auditing of persons accessing the Parliamentary villages has yet to be done. What has been done however is an audit of the occupancy of the housing units at each Parliamentary village.
(b) The audit was done partially. The results will be made available once the audit has been done completely.