NSFAS slammed for R18m parking bay lease - but what does parking cost in CPT CBD?
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme rents parking for its staff in its head office building in Cape Town.
FILE: SRC leaders from at least 14 universities picketed outside the NSFAS offices in the Cape Town CBD on 24 May 2023. Picture: Ntuthuzelo Nene/Eyewitness News
CapeTown's John Maytham talks CBD parking with Rob Kane, CEO of the Boxwood Property Fund.
The R18.6 million the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has allocated for parking for staff, constitutes a national scandal, says the Democratic Alliance (DA).
The party's referring to a five-year lease for the rental of 140 parking bays in the building where its headquarters are located in the Cape Town CBD.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) plans to apply to the Special Tribunal to set aside the Scheme's controversial head office lease agreement, reports News24.
The lease agreement started in February 2022 and ends on 31 January 2027.
"This extravagant waste of students’ money, on luxury parking bays, should never have been allowed to happen in the first place, and therefore the DA will submit follow-up written parliamentary questions to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane."
Democratic Alliance
But aside from the issue of leasing offices in a premium city building, how unreasonable is the cost being paid for parking by NSFAS?
John Maytham talks to Rob Kane, CEO of the Boxwood Property Fund.
Parking in the street on a daily basis would certainly prove to be more expensive than parking in a building, Kane says.
"That's whether you used either one of the various public parking garages in town, or in fact if you maintained office space and the landlord rented to you a parking bay."
Rob Kane, CEO - Boxwood Property Fund
Kane notes that Boxwood itself owns a lot of parking in the city centre, and does regular surveys to see if their rentals are market-related.
The cost of indoor parking of course decreases the further one moves towards the periphery of the city.
"We're finding rentals anywhere from R1 800 - and we recently saw new builds at R2 400 per bay per month."
Rob Kane, CEO - Boxwood Property Fund
"It might sound excessive, but parking is actually jolly expensive to build. According to our calculations, that new-build bay probably should be rented out at closer to R3 000 in order to get the return on all of that concrete that you've just built."
Rob Kane, CEO - Boxwood Property Fund
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