Johannesburg - Where do spies take other spies to lunch?
The Sheraton Hotel and the Cape Town Fish Market.
And they pay with a Diners Club card.
On Wednesday, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo told Parliament that the only official credit card issued in his department was a Diners Club card for a “liaison officer” called LN Dlova.
“The total value of purchases from May 8, 2014 to June 4, 2014 is R17 186.63,” he said.
“All purchases were for Foreign Intelligence Services Liaison entertainment.”
Five expenditures were listed, all apparently for venues in Pretoria.
There were two expeditions to the Sheraton on May 21, for R3 258 and R171.
Two weeks later, there was a payment of R4 367.98 at the “Baobao Café” (this is probably the Baobab Café), then an unspecified payment the next day at the Stone Cradle, then a payment of R3 442.65 the following day at the Cape Town Fish Market.
Assuming that the Stone Cradle was the balance of the total spending, that bill would have been R5 947.
The minister provided the information in response to a question from DA MP David Ross.
He didn’t answer Ross’s questions on the limit on the card or whether any alcohol was bought.
In another written response, to the DA’s Joe McGluwa, Mahlobo said the department had logged irregular expenditure of about R103 million and fruitless or wasteful expenditure of about R9m in the three financial years from 2010/11.
The Star