Pretoria - Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa's office has dismissed media reports alleging that he was in arrears with rent payment for his official residence in Cape Town.
"The minister refutes these allegations as reported in a Parliamentary reply by the Department of Public Works and subsequent media reports," a statement issued by his office said on Tuesday.
Mthethwa received a letter from the Ministry of Public Works on 26 May 2010, advising of outstanding rental at his official residence in Cape Town. The amount reflected at the time was R13 655.77, apparently for the months of January and February 2010 respectively.
Mthethwa's office immediately contacted Public Works to ascertain the merits of this alleged outstanding amount, as well as to seek clarity on why this issue was not raised with the minister for all these months.
"According to proof documents at the ministry's disposal, that is the minister's salary advice, a monthly amount has been deducted from the time he was appointed, each month without fail," it said.
The South African Police Service salary administration and finance team was also tasked to look into the matter and provide feedback to the minister. It was then reported that there were certain rental adjustments that were made from time to time based on the yearly salary increases of ministers.
The team then assured Mthethwa that this was accordingly addressed with the Public Works team dealing with accommodation administration. It would be "premature" to speculate on why the minister was listed as a defaulter, whether it was system error or the fault of the people who were tasked with administrating such processes, the ministry said.
