CHARLES MOLELE
THE ANC has to pay a total amount of R105 000 to the Department of Defence for transporting its delegation to Zimbabwe on a South African Air Force jet, according to Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
The invoice for the flight was attached to Mapisa-Nqakula’s report to President Cyril Ramaphosa after it emerged that an ANC delegation had flown with her to Harare in the SANDF aircraft on September 8.
Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that the report into the controversial trip was made public in the interest of “transparency”.
On Saturday night, the president issued an official reprimand to the minister and docked her three months’ pay for conveying the ANC delegation to Zimbabwe on an aircraft of the SAAF, starting in November.
Her salary for the three months should be paid into the Solidarity Fund, which was established to support the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the president said.
At the weekend, the SA National Defence Union and several opposition parties, including the Democratic Alliance and Inkatha Freedom Party, said Ramaphosa’s sanction was insufficient and called on the president to fire the minister before end of the week and release the report to the public.
ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has since apologized for the trip and said the party will reimburse the government for the SANDF flight on which six of its leaders hitched a ride with Mapisa-Nqakula to Zimbabwe.
Mapisa-Nqakula said with the benefit of hindsight, she should not have offered the lift to the ANC delegation.
“I agree in hindsight that it would have been prudent to inform your office in writing of my intention to ferry ANC NEC members, of which delegation I formed part to meet with Zanu-PF counterparts,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.
“Paragraph 1.2 of Chapter 7, Use of Non-commercial air travel, in the Guide for Members of the Executive, approved by the president on 20 November 2019, provides as follows: Air transport provided by the South Africa Air Force or any other Government Department may not be used by Members for party political engagements, unless such transport enables the Member concerned to fulfil important official engagements before or after the party political engagements.”
In her report, Mapisa-Nqakula outlines her rationale for offering the ANC delegation a lift to Zimbabwe.
“I was to form part of this [ANC] delegation as a member of the NEC. I was already set to depart on the Falcon 900 aircraft of the SA Air Force and since normal international travel had not resumed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and given the urgency of the matters to be discussed, I offered to ferry the members of the ANC delegation to and from the meeting in Zimbabwe,” said Mapisa-Nqakula in the supplementary report to Ramaphosa on the Zimbabwe flight.
“Given that my official visit to meet my counterpart had been approved and that the Ministerial Handbook as quoted below allow me to also attend to party political engagements in these circumstances and the fact that the costs to be incurred for the SAAF flight would remain the same whether it is just myself on the plan or others joined me, I extended the invitation to ferry the ANC NEC members.”
(COMPILED BY INSIDE POLITICS STAFF)
