I will not let Lindiwe Sisulu off the hook for wasting millions flying Gulfstream jets
I will not let former Minster of Defence and Military Veterans and current Minister of Public Service and Administration, Lindiwe Sisulu, off the political hook for wasting millions of rands flying on privately owned ultra-luxury Gulfstream executive jets operated by the South African Air Force (SAAF).
The current Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, has done everything possible to avoid replying to my parliamentary question probing the former Minister's use of Gulfstream executive jets.
The current Minister has defied the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu's, request to reply to my parliamentary question or furnish reasons for the delay in replying to my parliamentary question.
Presumably, she has also defied the Leader of Government Business, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's, request to reply to my parliamentary question or furnish reasons for the delay in replying to my parliamentary question.
The fact is the Minister has been allowed to get away with not replying to my question for 188 working days.
Last year, Minster Mapisa-Nqakula revealed that 203 flights, including 134 flights and 69 ferry flights, had been undertaken by former Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, on Gulfstream Executive Jets.
However, in a rare ministerial spat the former Minister claimed that the figures were factually incorrect and that she had, in fact, only undertaken 35 flights on Gulfstream Executive Jets.
The reply to the parliamentary question was subsequently withdrawn from the record in Parliament.
I was determined that the former Minister would not be let off the political hook and submitted a follow-up parliamentary question on the same matter which was published on 22 February 2013.
The question appears in the National Assembly's internal question paper as follows:
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Mr D J Maynier (DA) to ask the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans: 1. How many (a) flights and (b) ferry flights were undertaken by her predecessor using (i) chartered aircraft and (ii)(aa) a Gulfstream Executive Jet and (bb) any other specified aircraft operated by the (aaa) SA Air Force and (bbb) SA Air Force Reserve in the (aaaa) 2009-10, (bbbb) 2010-11 and (cccc) 2011-12 financial years; 2. what (a) was the cost and (b) is the breakdown of the cost for each specified flight in each specified financial year? |
However, since then Minister Mapisa-Nqakula has been doing everything possible to avoid replying.
I transferred my parliamentary question, in terms of National Assembly Rule 117 (1), for oral reply on 21 August 2013.
This would have required the Minister, in terms of National Assembly Rule 114 (2) to reply to my parliamentary question by 12h00 on 22 August 2013.
However, the Minister simply ignored the deadline and failed to reply to my question.
I then wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, on 22 August 2013 expressing my concern about the Minister's failure to reply and requested him to take up the matter with the Leader of Government Business, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, replied to me on 12 September 2013, as follows:
"I will write to the Leader of Government Business to request that he ensures that the Minister provides the replies to your questions or reasons for the delay."
However, the Minister appears to have simply ignored the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, and the Leader of Government Business, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
In the end, the Minister has been allowed to draw this matter out and avoid replying to my parliamentary question for 188 working days.
I have, therefore, once again written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Max Sisulu, requesting him to intervene and compel the Minister to reply.
I will not sit back and let the former Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, off the hook for wasting millions of rands flying on privately owned ultra-luxury Gulfstream executive jets operated by the South African Air Force.
One would have thought that after all the controversy, concerning her use of Gulfstream executive jets, the former Minister would have learned her lesson.
However, if her recent five-night stay, at public expense, at the ultra-luxury Westcliff Hotel, is anything to go by, the Minister has learned nothing.
Surely, she would have realised the monstrous irony of her fighting waste and corruption in the public service from the splendor of the ultra-luxury Westcliff Hotel.
The former Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, has a taste or the good life, at public expense, which needs to be reigned in, once and for all.
Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence & Military Veterans, November 18 2013
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