Covering up the hard facts about VIP travel?
The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, has refused to comprehensively answer detailed parliamentary questions about 222 national and international flights for VIPs - including the President, Deputy President, ministers and other senior members of the public service - undertaken by the South African Air Force's VIP Squadron (Squadron 21) in the 2008/2009 financial year. (The reply follows below.)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked standard parliamentary questions about VIP air travel undertaken by the South African Air Force for many years and has always received comprehensive answers from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
However, it now appears that the minister has put a "gag order" on comprehensively answering questions about VIP air travel undertaken by the South African Air Force's VIP Squadron. The minister refused to provide details of the departure date, arrival date, names of passengers and a breakdown of costs of each flight for VIPs. The minister also appears to have deliberately understated the costs involved in flying the VIPs.
The cost per flying hour for a Boeing BBJ - the presidential jet - is estimated to be approximately R65 000 per flying hour. This means that the cost of the Boeing BBJ's 65 national and international flights would be approximately R31.8 million rand - not the R9.77 million rand claimed by the minister. Moreover, based on figures provided in replies to parliamentary questions last year, the costs would be as follows:-
- Falcon 900: R 16.7 million rand (458 flying hours @ R36 638.06 per flying hour) - not the R7.68 million rand claimed by the minister;
- Falcon 50: R 8.6 million rand (290.3 flying hours @R29 683.41 per flying hour) - not the R 4.54 million rand claimed by the minister; and
- Citation C550: R 5.1 million rand (225.5 flying hours@ 22 799.95 per flying hour) - not the R 2.73 million claimed by the minister.
This raises serious questions about the accuracy of the figurers concerning the costs of air travel for VIPs provided by the MoD.