MP reports 'not true'

2009-07-07 22:22

Cape Town - Acting public works department director general Solly Malebye on Tuesday refuted media reports that former MPs still living in parliamentary villages in Cape Town were refusing to move out.

Malebye also rejected reports that the former MPs had been served with eviction notices.

"Six [former] MPs have asked for an extension and two MPs who have changed political parties leading up to the elections are required to move out of their current houses and move to those allocated for their new political party," he said.

Malebye said the matter was being blown out of proportion as the department was receiving co-operation from all people concerned.

"While we follow the proper administrative and legal processes in this regard, it is important that we take into consideration that it is also the minister of public works' prerogative, under the ministerial hand-book, for him to decide on a grace period given to outgoing MP's [for] vacating premises in parliamentarian villages.

"These reports should not take away from the fact that we have had a relatively smooth transition between MPs vacating and those occupying homes in the villages.

"We should not be distracted from what we came to do in Parliament, which is to serve the people of South Africa," he said.

- SAPA