While children die from hunger, ANC Cabinet blows R20 million on fuel and new luxury cars
27 March 2022
Note to editors: Please find attached soundbites in English from Leon Schreiber MP. See full table of figures here.
Last week, reports emerged that, as poverty ravages South Africa, seven children had starved to death in the Eastern Cape. This loss of innocent life serves as a tragic confirmation of how hunger, poverty and unprecedented hardship has hit millions of South Africans over the past three years. The devastation wrought by destructive and often senseless lockdown measures, combined with skyrocketing fuel and food prices caused by the chronic corruption and mismanagement of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, has trapped more citizens in poverty, hunger and unemployment than ever before in South African history.
Just this past week, Statistics South Africa reported that the rate of annual inflation on basic foodstuffs like bread and maize meal more than doubled in January, while the Reserve Bank increased interest rates by another 25 basis points out of fears that inflation could spiral out of control. Statistics South Africa also reported that the price paid by ordinary South Africans for transport increased by a staggering 14.3% year-on-year, with some economists predicting that fuel prices could soon hit R40 per litre.
While every other citizen feels this pain every day at the taxi rank, fuel pump and cash register, there is one elite class of South Africans who are exempt from the cost of living crisis facing our country: the very ANC Cabinet that caused the poverty crisis in the first place.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) today reveals new information, obtained through a series of parliamentary questions, which shows that while most South Africans struggle to find a working train and can barely afford to pay for taxi fares or fill-up their vehicles with petrol or diesel, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Poverty Cabinet has blown more than R20 million in public funds on buying fuel and brand new luxury vehicles for ANC Ministers and Deputy Ministers over the past three years. Many of these new vehicles also cost much more than the R700 000 spending limit nominally imposed by the November 2019 version of the Ministerial Handbook.
In terms of the Handbook, each Minister and Deputy is given a luxury vehicle to use in Pretoria and Cape Town, courtesy of the South African taxpayer. The cost of fuel, maintenance, tires and tolls for all of these vehicles is also paid out of the pockets of the South African public.
Since 2019, the ANC Poverty Cabinet has spent over R1 million on fuel and maintenance alone for the luxury official vehicles of Ministers and Deputy Ministers. This is despite the fact that South Africa was in lockdown for much of the last three years, with mobility severely restricted.
But the lockdown’s travel restrictions did not slow down ANC cadres’ appetite for luxury vehicles.
Since 2019, taxpayers bought 24 new vehicles for Ministers and Deputy Ministers, at a total cost of almost R19 million. The average cost for the 24 vehicles purchased was R789 736 – well in excess of the limit supposedly established by the Ministerial Handbook. Ministers and former Ministers, including Fikile Mbalula, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Pravin Gordhan, Tito Mboweni, Maite Nkoane-Mashabane, Joe Phaahla, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane and Khumbudzo Ndaveni, all bought themselves flashy new wheels as poverty, hunger and hardship exploded all around them.
In the most staggering case of all, in March 2019 – more than a year into the Ramaphosa administration – the Department of Human Settlements paid over R3 million for the purchase of two Audi S8 supercars for the enjoyment of former Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo and her Deputy at the time, Zou Kota-Fredericks. The dashing duo were however fired soon after, and the vehicles were likely mostly used by Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and her Deputy, Pam Tshwete, to speed through traffic to the nearest luxury shopping outlet.
Audi remains in pole position as the vehicle brand of choice for revved-up cadres, with eight luxury models ranging from the S8 to the A6 and Q5 purchased for ANC petrolheads. Next came Volvo, with three XC60s and two XC40s, followed by BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz closing out the home stretch.
In eleven different cases, the amount of taxpayer money spent on luxury vehicles by Ministers and Deputy Ministers exceeded the statutory limit of R700 000 imposed by the Ministerial Handbook. Although the Handbook allows the Finance Minister to increase this limit, it would have been in place at least until November 2020 – and possibly longer.
Since up to eleven vehicles were potentially purchased in contravention of the R700 000 limit by senior members of the Poverty Cabinet such as Fikile Mbalula, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Pravin Gordhan, Khumbudzo Ndaveni and Joe Phaahla, the DA is preparing to lay a complaint with the Public Protector’s office as soon as there is clarity over the pending suspension of the incumbent.
The Ministerial Handbook also stipulates that an official vehicle may only be replaced after 120 000 kilometres or five years, or if it “experiences serious mechanical problems and is in a poor condition.” The DA will therefore work to obtain all of the relevant records to expose any cases where vehicles were prematurely replaced.
Finally, we repeat our call to every South African to support our Motion of No Confidence in this disgraceful Poverty Cabinet, who are blitzing around in flashy supercars while South Africans can no longer afford to buy food or fuel, and children die of hunger.
Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 27 March 2022
