Cape Town - The first concrete indication that the government’s cost-cutting measures, announced last year, are being fobbed off by departments emerged over defence force chief General Solly Shoke’s R100 000 first-class flight to Malaysia.
The expenditure-containment measures, widely dubbed the “haircut”, were announced last October by then finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who included restrictions on air travel and limitation of accommodation costs to R1 300 a day, a ban on government credit cards, the downscaling of the value of official cars, and reduction of catering and consultancy services.
Last month, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene reiterated, and upped these measures, amid pressure to balance government’s books in tough economic times.
But on April 16, the Secretary for Defence, Dr Sam Gulube, wrote to the National Treasury to motivate for the exemption of senior military officials from these cost-cutting measures to avoid “embarrassment”, “retain dignity” and ensure security.
A few days earlier, on April 12, Shoke had headed off to the Defence Services 2014 Exhibition and Conference in Malaysia, travelling first class in the super-luxurious Emirates after initial travel arrangements reportedly were changed to accommodate his request to travel on that airliner.
While the Department of Defence was “in principle supportive” of the cost-cutting measures, Gulube’s letter also requested exemptions so that two staff members could fly business class when accompanying himself and the SANDF chief; that the daily accommodation limit be upped to R1 750 for senior officials; and that team-building and social events should continue to be allowed as most “are used to honour and recognise identified employees who have gone out of their way to ensure service delivery”.
This emerged as DA MP David Maynier on Monday criticised Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for “trying to shield Shoke from a full-blown travel expenses scandal” by not answering parliamentary questions.
“The minister is clearly trying to protect General Solly Shoke from a full-blown expenses scandal. However, the minister is sorely mistaken if she thinks General Shoke is above scrutiny by Parliament,” he said.
This came after the minister failed to respond to written parliamentary questions on Shoke’s travel costs since August and, when these were converted to a question for oral reply in the House last week, she also did not respond.
Last week, the minister declined to answer in public a question about the R1 billion-plus defence intelligence spy satellite under construction by a Russian company since 2006.
Instead she called Maynier irresponsible for asking about this project in public, although the minister indicated she would brief either the joint standing committee on intelligence, which sits only behind closed doors, or the joint standing committee on defence, which can choose to sit behind closed doors.
Yesterday, Maynier said he would write to Speaker Baleka Mbete asking the presiding officer to compel the defence minister to answer the parliamentary question, or cite the law on which she is relying not to provide an answer.
Neither the Defence Ministry nor the SANDF responded timeously to requests for comment on the lack of a parliamentary response on Shoke’s travels.
Political Bureau