By: Natasha Archary
South Africans are demanding answers from cabinet as to how ministers were allowed to spend almost R20 million on luxury cars. The excessive spending took place between 2019 and 2021, during one of the toughest times endured by the country, with the poorest of the poor without basic necessities.
DA MP Leon Schreiber leading the exposé shared the shocking amounts that cabinet ministers and deputy ministers spent on new vehicles.
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) today reveals new information, obtained through a series of parliamentary questions, which shows that while most South Africans struggle to find a working train and can barely afford to pay for taxi fares or fill-up their vehicles with petrol or diesel, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Poverty Cabinet has blown more than R20 million in public funds on buying fuel and brand new luxury vehicles for ANC Ministers and Deputy Ministers over the past three years. Many of these new vehicles also cost much more than the R700 000 spending limit nominally imposed by the November 2019 version of the Ministerial Handbook.”
The DA revealed in a statement
Since 2019, 24 luxury cars were purchased for both ministers and deputy ministers. The average costs of the vehicles exceeded the Ministerial Handbook limit of R700 000.
On average, each vehicle amounted to R789 736, but two Audi S8 supercars cost over R 3 million.
The S8’s were bought for Department of Human Settlements Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo and her Deputy at the time, Zou Kota-Fredericks.
Ministers and former Ministers, including Fikile Mbalula, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Pravin Gordhan, Tito Mboweni, Maite Nkoane-Mashabane, Joe Phaahla, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane and Khumbudzo Ndaveni, all bought themselves flashy new wheels as poverty, hunger and hardship exploded all around them.
DA MP Leon Schreiber
In addition, the ANC’s ‘Poverty Cabinet’, as the DA refers to cabinet, spent over R1 million on fuel and maintenance on these vehicles. All of this was done while the country was under a hard lockdown with travel restrictions in place and public mobility severely restricted.
The Ministerial Handbook also stipulates that an official vehicle may only be replaced after 120 000 kilometres or five years, or if it “experiences serious mechanical problems and is in a poor condition.”
According to Schreiber, the DA will therefore work to obtain all of the relevant records to expose any cases where vehicles were prematurely replaced and will lay a complaint with the Public Protector as soon as the issue around her suspension is resolved.
