Dean Macpherson, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure. (Photo: X)
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson made several damning revelations about his department this week – revelations of irregular tenancies, ghost employees and “self-created emergencies”.
Macpherson announced the findings of several investigations into his department at a media conference on Wednesday so that South Africans can understand why his department’s reform agenda is irreversible.
There is no other option but reform, says Macpherson.
The minister believes the Property Management Trade Entity (PMTE) is the most urgent reform area in his portfolio. The PMTE is responsible for managing one of South Africa’s largest public property portfolios.
Macpherson has now revealed that the entity’s overdraft has doubled in the past 20 months to almost R4 billion. The PMTE has also not achieved a clean audit since it was established in 2014.
“The PMTE should be one of the most strategic institutions in government,” says Macpherson. “This should help the state to reduce wasteful leasing, unlock value from state assets, provide quality accommodation to client departments and use public land and buildings for the public benefit.
“Instead, the PMTE is too often associated with poor systems, inflated leases, underutilized buildings, poor contract management and severe financial pressure.”
Leases
Private leases are also a major headache for the portfolio.
Macpherson says that the government is still spending around R6 billion a year on private leases. This even though the state owns thousands of buildings and lots of land.
“This is not sustainable. This is not acceptable. This is exactly why we had to strengthen oversight of the way in which public property transactions take place,” says Macpherson.
He stressed that as the minister he does not sign leases. He also does not acquire buildings.
“The minister does not choose landlords. The minister does not manage the bid evaluation process. But I do have a responsibility to ensure that major rental decisions comply with the law, public money is protected and action is taken in the best interest of the state.
“Since the strengthening of supervision, we have seen lease proposals that lack the most basic information needed for legal decision-making. We have seen proposed leases with costs above market value. We have seen leases allowed to expire without proper contingency plans, often deliberately,” the minister said.
“We’ve seen submissions with detailed concerns sent back, only for those concerns to be ignored or not properly processed. And we’ve seen what our own investigators have described as ‘self-created emergencies’: where normal planning fails, delays are allowed to build and urgency is then used to justify bypassing proper investigation.”
Dean Macpherson, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure. (Photo: X)
Then there is also the lease issue regarding the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) investigative directorate against corruption (Idac), the minister said.
According to Macpherson, an investigation revealed that PMTE officials also created an “emergency” to accommodate Idac at 146 Lunnon Road, Hillcrest, Pretoria. This is a building where a five-year lease contract amounting to R69.5 million was concluded, even if there was no tenant in the building.
Macpherson says this lease is one of the clearest examples of why reform is needed.
In March 2023, the department entered into a five-year lease for 146 Lunnon Road for the then Department of Public Enterprises and this was done even though the Department of Public Enterprises was already on its way to being closed.
“Simply put, a lease was signed for a department that would no longer need the building in the original way. The building was never occupied.
“But the matter becomes even more serious when you consider what happened next.
“In 2025, when Idac needed accommodation, a procurement process had already been undertaken for Idac to be housed at a CSIR property in Brummeria.
“However, according to the preliminary investigation conducted by the department’s anti-corruption and fraud awareness unit, that submission did not proceed as it should. The investigation found that the failure to process the submission for the CSIR accommodation created an urgent need to accommodate Idac elsewhere.
That supposed urgency was used to justify the Idac office at 146 Lunnon Road, the same building already attached to the unused lease from the Department of Public Enterprises.
“The preliminary investigation describes it as a ‘self-created emergency’.”
Macpherson believes that this case speaks of a pattern that he is determined to stop.
Dean Macpherson, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure. (Photo: X)
“The state cannot continue to tolerate a system where poor planning, delays or internal obstruction are allowed to create an emergency and that emergency is then used to justify decisions that expose the public to financial and legal risk.
“In this case, the risks are no longer theoretical,” he says, as lawyers acting on behalf of the landlord have written to the department to demand compensation.
“They claim that the department is in breach of contract. They requested that an arbitrator be appointed by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa. They demanded damages of more than R50 million.
“This means that due to a lease that should never have reached this point, the department may now experience serious legal and financial exposure. This will amount to useless and wasteful expenditure,” says the minister.
“I want to be careful not to harm any legal process. The department will defend the interests of the public and will seek legal advice on the appropriate response. But South Africans deserve to know that this case is now on its way to arbitration, that there is a claim for damages against the department, and that the potential consequences of poor rental management can now be borne by the public purse,” says Macpherson.
“This is precisely why I will not apologize for strengthening surveillance. It is precisely why I will continue to ask tough questions and insist on excellence, despite leaks and backlash.”
Ghost workers
Ghost workers are another serious concern.
A ghost worker audit within the department identified 60 people who appeared to have received salaries for years while not working for the department. Most of these possible ghost workers are in KwaZulu-Natal.
“This is a serious matter,” says Macpherson. “This raises obvious questions about how these payments were processed, who authorized them, whether internal controls failed, whether officials looked the other way and whether public money can be recovered.”
The department is trying to complete this audit, determine the full extent of the payments, identify those responsible and ensure that the necessary disciplinary, civil and criminal actions follow where violations are confirmed.
The department has also taken a firm stance on lifestyle audits, according to the minister.
Officials who manage public money, leases, contracts, properties and infrastructure projects must be prepared to be accountable. “This is not an attack on civil servants. This is a basic requirement of public trust,” says Macpherson.
Dean Macpherson, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure. (Photo: X)
Public works must work
“When we ask tough questions about leases, contracts, ghost employees, lifestyle audits, underutilized buildings, failed projects and irregular procurement, we don’t do it to make headlines.
“We are doing this because we want this department to work and serve the country,” explained the minister.
“We cannot build a competent department on broken systems.
“We cannot ask the public to trust us with billions of rand in assets, leases, projects and grants if we are not prepared to confront the failures, irregularities and abuses that have weakened this department over many years.
“Every irregular tenancy weakens the state’s ability to provide proper accommodation to client departments. Every failed infrastructure project delays services to communities.
“Every ghost employee steals from unemployed South Africans who need real opportunities.”