KEY POINTS
- Ewseta paid R21.7 million for Cape House in 2014 but never occupied the building.
- Additional refurbishment costs of R36.7 million pushed the total public loss beyond R58 million.
- No official has been held accountable despite years of criminal cases and formal investigations.
The Cape House building in Johannesburg has stood empty for over a decade. Ewseta, the Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority, bought the property in 2014. It has never been used.
The purchase price was R21.7 million. The rationale was simple enough: own a building, stop paying rent. But the authority then funneled an additional R36.7 million into refurbishments through various service providers. The project stalled. It never finished. The Auditor-General of South Africa’s General Report for 2024/25 confirmed the scale of the damage. Over R58 million in public funds had been lost on a property Ewseta never occupied.
A property that promised savings and delivered none
Cape House was meant to be Ewseta’s permanent headquarters. Contractors were engaged. Refurbishment money moved. But more than 10 years later, the job remains incomplete and no Ewseta employee has ever worked inside those walls.
Errol Gradwell was the authority’s chief executive when the purchase was made. When approached for comment, he distanced himself from the decision. “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to assist. You are talking about 14 years, and my age and memory doesn’t help much,” Gradwell said. He added that the Accounting Authority, not the CEO, is responsible for authorizing expenditure above R500,000.
Ewseta records identify Senzeni Zokwana as board chairperson at the time. Zokwana later served as South Africa’s minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Years of investigations, zero accountability
According to All Africa, the Auditor-General recommended that the Department of Higher Education and Training hold Ewseta and its Accounting Authority responsible for the R58 million loss. That recommendation was delivered in late 2024.
Questions were sent to DHET spokesperson Matshepo Seedat. The ministry did not respond.
Criminal cases were filed. Formal investigations followed. No official has faced meaningful consequences.
Cape House still stands locked in Johannesburg, a symbol of failed oversight, with no recovery of public funds and no accountability for the losses incurred. It cost South African taxpayers R21.7 million to acquire and another R36.7 million to renovate, and neither transaction delivered a single day of use. Ewseta’s mandate is to develop skills in the energy and water sectors and to open doors for workers and young people. What was lost in Cape House was not just money. It was every bursary, every training program, every opportunity those funds could have created.
