Curtains for the poor: ministers get silk drapes while Chatsworth gets leaking roofs

IN A REPLY to my parliamentary question, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean William Macpherson admitted that the Government of National Unity (GNU) had spent R10.3 million since April 2024 maintaining ministerial residences.

That’s right: while the country groans under unemployment, power cuts, and a collapsing water system, someone is signing off invoices for R143 000 curtains and R54 000 curtain rails. And where does this leave Phoenix, Chatsworth, and the thousands living in government-owned rental flats? In the gutters, literally.

Two South Africa’s — one curtain rail apart

On one side, you have the Bryntirion and Groote Schuur estates — manicured lawns, fresh paint, gates that open and close like a charm, and emergency generators humming through load shedding.

On the other, you have Bayview and Westcliff - flats with crumbling walls, burst water pipes, mould on the ceilings, and no fire safety equipment.

The irony? These flats aren’t free. Residents collectively owe R37.5 million in arrears. And yet, what do they get for their money? Rusted taps, peeling paint, a prayer that the roof won’t cave in during the next rainstorm. Ministers get luxury maintenance on demand.

Tenants get told to “be patient” until the next budget cycle.

Curtains versus ceilings: a national morality test

Let’s be clear: nobody is saying ministers must live in squalor. But R10.3 million for upkeep — in just over a year — is not maintenance, it’s indulgence.

It’s a political class that sees no contradiction in living in palaces while the people who vote them in live in near-condemned buildings. When the state can find R400 000 for fumigation but not R40,000 to fix fire hoses in Chatsworth flats, we are not facing a budget problem — we are facing a moral problem.

The politics of arrears

Government spin-doctors will remind us that these Chatsworth residents owe millions. But pause for a second — do you know why? Because unemployment is sky-high. Because pensioners can’t stretch R2 180 to cover food and rent. Because water bills are inflated, meters are faulty, and the municipality’s billing system is a circus.

People are not refusing to pay out of malice — they are refusing to pay for broken services, squalor, and neglect. Meanwhile, the ministers’ houses get upgraded whether or not the GNU is “in arrears” with the people.

The GNU’s “let them eat curtains” moment

This is South Africa’s “Marie Antoinette” moment. Except instead of “let them eat cake,” it’s “let them eat curtain dust”.

It’s as if the government is saying: “Yes, we know your roofs are leaking. But please admire the Deputy Minister’s new silk drapes. They were imported.”

That is the level of contempt. And it is why communities are boiling with anger.

What real leadership would do

- Freeze luxury maintenance on ministerial houses until every government-owned flat is safe, watertight, and habitable.

- Publish every invoice for these houses online — let South Africans see where every rand goes.- Convert arrears into an amnesty programme tied to repairs — fix the units first, then give residents a fair chance to pay

- Divert a portion of Public Works’ budget from luxury items to public rental stock maintenance.

Because dignity is not a luxury

Phoenix, Chatsworth, and similar communities are not asking for chandeliers or Persian carpets. They are asking for ceilings that don’t collapse on their children, for taps that run, for flats that don’t turn into health hazards.

It is obscene that in 2025, taxpayers are still footing the bill for luxury upgrades while ordinary South Africans are forced to live in conditions that should embarrass any government calling itself democratic.

Curtains or Justice? Choose.

Every rand spent on a silk curtain is a rand stolen from a pensioner’s dignity. Every curtain rail polished is another delay in fixing a burst pipe in a Chatsworth flat. If the GNU thinks this is sustainable, it should remember what happened in 2024: the ANC dropped below 50% for the first time since 1994. Keep polishing those curtains, comrades - but don’t act surprised when the voters tear them down at the ballot box.

Visvin Reddy is an uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) MP. 

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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