Defence Minister should be suspended without pay following allegations of pampered lifestyle on public funds
26 April 2021
The DA calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute an urgent Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into allegations that the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, wasted millions of taxpayers’ money on chartered flights and luxury accommodation, and to suspend her without compensation pending the outcome of this investigation.
A dossier of evidence has been submitted to the Joint Standing Committee on Defence detailing at least five instances where doubt can be cast over the Minister’s actions. This is in addition to evidence that had been submitted to the committee on a previous occasion that alleged Minister Mapisa-Nqakula had “extorted” more than R5 million from a South African National Defence Force (SANDF) service provider.
The Sunday Independent has reported that the Minister allegedly spent:
R4 million on a chartered flight from the Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria to Cairo in Egypt in April 2019;