Luxury hotel stays: What is government trying to hide?
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is determined to find out how much public money our national Ministers are spending on staying at luxury hotels. But it is apparent that the government is equally determined to stop us.
We have submitted parliamentary questions to each Minister requesting details of the hotels they have stayed in and at what cost to the public purse. Some, like Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson have already answered. In her case, it was revealed that she spent almost R1,6 million on luxury hotels since taking office.
Others are refusing to answer. Of the 11 parliamentary replies that the Ministers have sent through so far, 5 have refused to provide details of the cost, citing "security" concerns. (Copies of the replies are available on request.) The culprits are:
- Minister of Defence - Lindiwe Sisulu
- Minister of Energy - Dipuo Peters
- Minister of Justice - Jeff Radebe
- Minister of Labour - Mildred Oliphant
- Former Minister of Public Service and Administration - Richard Baloyi
Citing security concerns is obviously bogus. There is no way that revealing the cost of expenditure on luxury accommodation could compromise a Minister's security. We don't want to know where Ministers are staying tomorrow; we want to know what they spent on hotels in the past.
This growing tendency to hide ministerial expenditure behind a "security" façade must be stopped in its tracks. The government is accountable to parliament and the public. Ministers who refuse to answer parliamentary questions - no matter how embarrassing the answers - are violating their obligation to transparency and accountability.
The DA will be writing to the Speaker of Parliament, Max Sisulu, requesting that he compel the Ministers listed above to answer our parliamentary questions on their hotel expenditure. It is a reasonable question that demands a reasonable answer.
Statement issued by Ena van Schalkwyk MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, October 31 2011
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
