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 Justice splurges R105m on 'luxury'
    November 23 2009 at 01:57PM Get IOL on your
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By Political Bureau

Justice department staff, the minister and his deputy, as well as judges have been clocking up frequent-flyer miles and hotel stays at taxpayers' expense to the tune of R105-million so far this year.

Last year the department spent R188m on travel and accommodation costs. The figures were given in a written reply to a parliamentary question.

Government departments are under pressure to cut back on frivolous spending and to introduce austerity measures in the light of the recession.

A number of departments have introduced cut-backs, including limits on business-class seats, reducing the number of trips by staff members and the use of cheaper places to stay.
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But the Department of Justice, which is responsible for managing the courts to ensure smooth administration of justice, has a large staff component that regularly travels around the country and to remote areas for court hearings and other related matters.

It is the second department to reveal its astronomical travel and accommodation bill.

Department of Public Works officials, including the minister and his deputy, splurged R134m on travelling, accommodation and restaurants since April last year, with R34m of that money spent in the past six months alone.

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    • This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on November 23, 2009

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    Showing page 1 of 3 comment pages, 26 total comments
    11 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
    I am proud to know that all my tax is being squandered while millions die of AIDS and starvation. The ANC is going to kill more people than the NP police force ever could.
    11 Weeks ago khami wrote :
    GO overseas then you'll know what rands worth vs international currency but if money spent in south africa then is questionable.Cut down cost by managing finaces and expenditure and travel by govt members.
    11 Weeks ago CapeZulu wrote :
    Its interesting that people keep on giving us these amounts that are wasted on travelling and accommodation. Lets hear what the alternative is, must people drive or not attend meetings in other parts of the country. When they drive and claim km, its also an issue. You just cant win. Its easy to say that 134m was spent, but where is the breakdown of how many people were involved. was there an alternative. Oversight is good, but it must be balanced instead of being sensational.
    11 Weeks ago ILoveSA wrote :
    F ups and filthy,ugly, stink and disgusting thieves the lot of them.
    11 Weeks ago insider wrote :
    Ministers and DG use these miles to fly their children on overseas holidays. They will kill if you mistakenly omit their voyager number. Ask the senior managers in national health department
    11 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
    The Gravy train keeps on steaming ahead!!
    11 Weeks ago Yaaaah wrote :
    @AsH, I wonder if you are aware that almost every SA is a tax payer, because when you pay for you taxi/bus/train fare it include tax, the food we buy has tax, so that makes everyone a tax payer.
    11 Weeks ago Bigfoot wrote :
    Judges think they are above the law and below public scrutiny. Bloody disgrace. I wonder how many judges are corrupt. We know at least one who is a drunken racist.
    11 Weeks ago Houston wrote :
    @TrueSA, clealy you have no idea about how goverment departments operate, all this is open to the public - you want to justify the long fingers of your corrupt goverment however, dont come crying when you their is nothing left in the coffers
    11 Weeks ago JAH wrote :
    Absolutely disgusting and we have to keep paying rates and taxes for them to abuse our money. Every company has travel policies one of which is no business class, low cost carriers and 3 star hotels. It's time the ANC government stopped abusing taxpayers money, if money was abused in a company the staff member would be disciplined and fired!