Lease woes for Shabangu continue

At another rented office in KwaZulu-Natal, ICD workers have been barred from accessing the parking area because the landlord has not paid the rent.

Fin24 quotes Francois Beukman, director of the ICD as saying that the Pretoria headquarters were ill-suited for the ICD. He says the Department of Public Works had negotiated the 10-year lease on the ICD's behalf.

Times Live quotes Matthews Sesoko, acting programme manager at the ICD as saying that the lifts at City Forum had not been working for months and that the basement was flooded. The building also has more than double the space that the ICD requires.

The Public Protector and the Special Investigating Unit are investigating the City Forum lease.

The ICD has been advised by the office of the state law advisers to stop paying the monthly rental of R729 000 to Shabangu pending the outcome of the investigations.

Fin24 says that 16 properties leased for it by the Department of Public Works in different parts of the country were costing R21,5-million a year, equivalent to 15% of the ICD's total budget.

For more:

• Times Live: ICD leases questioned
  
• News24: ICD stops paying rent for contentious HQ