Tebogo Monama and Ofentse Maphari
PRETORIA: Three government leaders were exonerated yesterday when Public Protector Thuli Madonsela did not find any wrongdoing following investigations into their conduct.
Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula and his deputy, Gert Oosthuizen, were investigated for wasting departmental funds by spending about R2.6 million for 345 domestic and international flights. Oosthuizen had spent about R1.1m on 105 flights. The complaint was lodged by DA MP Winston Rabotapi.
She said Rabotapi has been informed of the outcome of the investigation and was happy with it. Madonsela said Mbalula and Oosthuizen delayed in giving their responses for the investigation.
However, she said there was no evidence that the two acted “improperly or outside the department mandate”.
Madonsela said the trips were taken in line with their department’s policies. Mbalula took 12 international trips at a cost of R767 000.20 and 63 domestic flights at R361 622. Trips to Parliament accounted for R197 800.
Oosthuizen took 16 international trips at a cost of R897 927 and 77 domestic trips at a cost of R514 680, and R369 676 were to travel to Parliament. Madonsela said she found no evidence indicating a penchant for affluent or excessive expenditure in any of the trips involved.
“Having said that, I do hope that ministers do take into account that we are a country where children in some rural villages have no electricity, classrooms… and even sports facilities,” Madonsela said. She said she compared their travel patterns with other ministers and found they were similar.
She said most of Mbalula and Oosthuizen’s international trips were done in first class, and this was allowed by the ministerial handbook at the time.
Since then, former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan has put in austerity measures that include that ministers must not travel first class and limit the use of five-star hotels.
Another politician who is off the hook is KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. DA KwaZulu-Natal member of the provincial legislature Sizwe Mchunu asked Madonsela to investigate Dhlomo for using an emergency helicopter to attend a funeral in Hlabisa in November 2012.
While he was there, 15-year-old Asheen Maharaj was involved in an accident and there was no emergency helicopter to get to the scene and transport him to hospital. Maharaj was transported in an ambulance but eventually died.
Mchunu alleged that Dhlomo used the South African Air Mercy Cross Trust helicopter, the only available emergency medical helicopter in the eThekwini metro, to fly to Hlabisa for non-medical emergency purposes.
The distance between Durban and Hlabisa is 268km. Madonsela said she found Dhlomo was attending not only a funeral in Hlabisa, but also had health-related meetings with the community.
She found Dhlomo’s conduct was not improper as the contract for the helicopter permitted the department to use it for a number of hours a month.
“It permits the use of some of these hours for administrative use. It is a discomforting policy and other provinces should review their policies because they are similar.”
“The arrangement also feeds negative perceptions regarding competing needs of patients and departmental management,” Madonsela said.
Mbalula welcomed Madonsela’s report.