A Sunday World investigation has uncovered that the Gauteng provincial government is paying tens of millions of rands every month to private landlords for office buildings that stand empty – while dozens of state-owned buildings across Johannesburg and Tshwane remain vacant and abandoned.
Sunday World’s on-the-ground visits to several government-leased and state-owned properties in the Johannesburg CBD and in Tshwane revealed multi-storey office blocks that are idle, deteriorating, and inaccessible to the public, despite taxpayers continuing to bear the cost of rent, security, maintenance, rates and taxes.
Documents and site inspections show that some buildings leased for key departments – including economic development, agriculture and rural development, and education – were vacated by staff working remotely, yet rental payments continue.
At the centre of this spending is the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (DID), led by MEC Jacob Mamabolo, which manages the provincial government’s property portfolio.
Sunday World can reveal that the provincial government is paying more than R34-million a month in rental costs alone across multiple leased properties from private landlords, despite dozens of government-owned buildings standing empty.
This is according to Mamabolo, who last April told the Gauteng legislature that the provincial government was paying R34 104 005 per month in rentals for the headquarters of 11 departments.
Among the most striking examples uncovered by the investigation is a building at 55 Fox Street in Johannesburg, leased by the DID from Shenge Property Group. The building is vacant, yet the provincial government continues to pay more than R2.9-million a month.
Another Shenge Property Group-owned building at 56 Eloff Street in the Joburg CBD also stands largely empty. The multi-storey property previously housed the departments of agriculture, rural development, and economic development, as well as Gauteng Enterprise Propeller. Despite the lack of occupants, the provincial government pays R4.09-million a month for the building.
Shenge Property Group has leased at least five buildings to the Gauteng government. One building in Loveday Street is leased to the department of education at a monthly cost exceeding R3.3-million.
According to records, the Gauteng government leases properties from multiple companies, including Shenge Property Group, CBD Investments, Supplier Park Development Company, Endilor, Johannesburg Land Company, Batuka Properties, Ovation Property Holdings and SKG Properties, to accommodate staff from various departments.
However, some of these leased properties stand empty, while state-owned buildings, numbering at least 41, remain abandoned.
Many buildings visited show visible signs of neglect, such as broken windows, shuttered entrances, and no public access for residents seeking services.
The DA in Gauteng has seized on the findings, demanding answers from the provincial government over what it describes as wasteful expenditure. DA Gauteng spokesperson on cooperative governance and infrastructure development, Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, said the party had raised concerns in the legislature about the escalating rental bill and abandoned government buildings.
Rasilingwane said it was “shocking”. “Instead of wasting taxpayers’ money on renting office space, GDID (department of infrastructure development) must fix the buildings that are not in use due to non-compliance with occupational health and safety standards,” she said.
A 25-storey building purchased by the government for R168-million could accommodate multiple departments but remains underutilised, Rasilingwane said.
“This 25-storey building can accommodate all the departments, but the government prefers to use taxpayers’ money to rent buildings instead of utilising what it already owns.”
According to her, nearly R100-million is being spent on security services alone for abandoned government buildings, alongside millions more on rates and taxes.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi last year announced a forensic investigation into what he described as potentially wasteful expenditure of about R34-million per month on leased office space. In a statement issued in May last year, he said the investigation would be conducted by an independent forensic firm to scrutinise lease agreements awarded by the DID over several years.
However, more than a year later, the report has not been made public.
An insider familiar with the probe told Sunday World that the investigation has been divided into multiple sections, covering leased buildings, state-owned vacant properties, and payments for rates, taxes, security, and maintenance.
“What I can tell you is that the forensic firm has divided its probe into sections to investigate all the issues surrounding this matter,” the insider said.
“The investigations are underway to establish all the facts concerning this, and many people are going to face the music, as there is grand-scale corruption at play here.”
Mamabolo confirmed to Sunday World this week that the forensic investigation is still ongoing. “The long and short response to you is that the forensic investigations that were announced are still ongoing and not yet concluded. Once the investigation has been concluded, we will announce,” he said.
“I wouldn’t pre-empt when the investigation report will be concluded.”
Gauteng government spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said, “The investigation is underway. Once concluded, it will be made public; at this stage we are not going to comment.”
