Friday, 21 November 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the closure of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) Head Office by the Department of Employment and Labour. This unprecedented shutdown exposes the DPWI as a collapsing institution led by DA Minister Dean Macpherson who has completely abandoned his responsibilities in favour of public relations stunts and media theatrics.

It is an extraordinary national embarrassment that the very department entrusted with managing and maintaining all government buildings has been operating from a headquarters that is unsafe, non-compliant, and hazardous to its own employees. Public Works—the national landlord of South Africa—has failed even to keep its own house in order. This is not just incompetence; it is a total dereliction of duty.

For months, the EFF has demanded a complete and updated asset register from the DPWI. We warned that without knowing what buildings it owns or what condition they’re in, the Department cannot possibly manage state properties. These warnings were ignored. Today, the consequences are unavoidable: the DPWI’s own head office has deteriorated to such a dangerous state that another government department had to intervene and shut it down to protect workers.

This collapse is directly linked to the conduct of Minister Macpherson who, instead of confronting the operational crisis in his department, has chosen the path of public relations over performance. He prefers cameras over compliance, headlines over hard work, and superficial visibility over substantive governance. While the infrastructure of the Republic decays, the Minister is busy arranging media tours, posting staged site visits, cutting ribbons, and issuing glossy press statements that paint a fictional picture of progress. The Head Office was collapsing, unsafe, non-compliant, and hazardous—yet the Minister found time for TV interviews, not for inspecting his own building.

This catastrophic failure is the result of years of ignored audit findings, unimplemented safety recommendations, and chaotic facilities management within the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE). The very institution that should be the engine of state infrastructure maintenance has become paralysed under weak leadership and administrative decay.

The closure of the DPWI headquarters raises a deeply troubling question: if Public Works cannot ensure the safety of its own offices, what does this mean for the thousands of schools, hospitals, police stations, clinics, and courts under its care? The EFF, therefore, demands full public disclosure of the safety violations identified by the Department of Employment and Labour with a clear picture of which structural failures were ignored, which hazards were left unresolved, which officials failed to act, and who must be held personally accountable.

This is not a simple compliance issue—it is a leadership crisis as the Minister has failed to lead, failed to monitor, and failed to uphold the most basic standards of governance. South Africans deserve a Public Works Department that is competent, responsible, and focused on its mandate, not one infected by PR gimmicks while buildings collapse.

ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Sinawo Thambo (National Spokesperson) 072 629 7422

Thembi Msane (National Spokesperson) 061 467 8169

Andiswa Madikazi (Parliament Media Liason) 069 516 4924

Thato Lebyane (Media Inquiries) 078 563 1581