#Jetgate: DA rejects Mapisa-Nqakula’s nonsense calculations of ANC's required payment

1 October 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) rejects the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s gross under-calculations in determining the amount the ANC has to repay for abusing an air force Falcon-900 aircraft to travel to Zimbabwe on party political business.

R105 545,46 is not nearly enough for this brazen abuse of power and rare State resources. 

The DA last week reached out to two independent companies that are experts in the field of private international travel to request the cost of chartering an 18-seater private jet from Pretoria or Johannesburg to Harare, Zimbabwe. 

The amount, only for the flight itself, came to approximately R260 000. It did not even include payments for landing rights, parking fees or on-board catering. Meaning that the figure is much higher. 

Minister Mapisa-Nqakula has grossly under-calculated the total cost, based on irrelevant formulas. She also apportioned cost to the ANC based on the number of occupants. This does not make sense given the fact that without the ANC on board there would not have been a need for a massive air force jet in the first place. 

The DA has previously pointed out that the Minister usually uses the much smaller 9-seater jet for state visits to Zimbabwe and that this much bigger 18-seater jet was used for the specific purpose of accommodating the ANC delegation

The DA maintains that the ANC should at least repay R260 000. 

The Minister’s audacity to think that South Africans will accept this R100 000 price tag is embarrassing. And President Cyril Ramaphosa should equally hang his bead in shame for accepting Minister Mapisa-Nqakula’s pathetic report. 

Issued by Kobus Marais, DA Shadow Minister of Defence, 30 September 2020