NATIONAL ASSEMBLY  

QUESTION NO. 707

FOR WRITTEN REPLY

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE INTERNAL QUESTIONS PAPER: 20/05/05

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 14-2005) 

N922E 

Adv. P.S Swart (DA) to ask the Minister for Intelligence:   

With reference to the guest house in Sunset Beach owned by the National Intelligence Agency, what was the total cost to the State of (a) the auctioneers fees, (b) advertising costs associated with the auction, (c) municipal rates, (d) maintenance, (e) security, (f) insurance, (g) personnel, (h) renovations and (i) refurbishment, including the cost of each item, as at the latest specified date for which information is available?

REPLY: 

By means of introduction, I have to state that the transaction with regard to the Sunset Beach Guest House has not been concluded as yet, as the transfer of the property has not taken place. As per the conditions of the auction, the date for final payment and transfer has been set for the end of July 2005.

(a) and (b) In terms of the negotiations between the NIA and the auctioneers, it was set as a condition that the NIA would expect no less than R7,8 million as the nett selling price for the guest house.  In subsequent negotiations between the buyer and the auctioneers, an agreement was reached between the parties that costs related to advertisements and the auctioneering of the house would be recovered by the auctioneer. There was therefore no additional cost to the Agency in that regard.

(c)   For the period 2004 January to 2005 April, the total amount paid in respect of municipal rates amounted to R45 925,77.

(d)   An amount of R84 792,19 was spent on maintenance.

(f)   In accordance with the Treasury Regulations, the house was not insured.

In terms of questions (e), (g), (h) and (i):

The Honourable Member is asking questions similar to the ones posed to me in Question No. 9 of 21 May 2004 and Question No. 437 of 13 August 2004 which I have replied to.

As mentioned in my previous replies, the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) was briefed by the Ministry for Intelligence Services and the National Intelligence Agency on these matters and I again wish to refer the Honourable Member to the JSCI public report to Parliament which was adopted by the National Assembly on 14 May 2003 and was published in the ATC Report No.60/2003 on 22 May 2003 in this regard.

In addition, the Honourable Member is once again kindly referred to the JSCI for further clarity or enquiry on the matter