Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi has apparently "noted with great concern persistence by MPs in posing questions on official ministerial vehicles", and has also stated that "as government we would like to reiterate that official vehicles are not the personal belongings of the members". This is just one day after the minister of correctional services confirmed that her department had spent R1.73-million on two new ministerial vehicles, including a R760,000 Porsche Cayenne.
What this illustrates is that the minister completely fails to understand the nature of concerns being raised about the extravagant spending on ministerial vehicles. He does not seem to understand that every item of government expenditure carries with it an opportunity cost. The fact that he highlights that these vehicles are being funded by the state, as if that in some or other way was a good thing, illustrates just how incoherent the ANC government's argument has become. The fact that these are not personal belongings is precisely the reason that they are pertinent as items of expenditure!
These comments attributed to minister Baloyi are particularly strange given that the minister has simultaneously appeared to acknowledge the importance of cutting wasteful expenditure in his own department, by "aggressively cut all future spending on advertising and marketing in the next financial year".
We need to cut expenditure on ministerial vehicles for precisely the same reason as his department needs to adopt austerity measures, and it is incredible that he can claim, on the one hand, that the purchase of luxury vehicles is acceptable because they are being purchased by the state, while at the same time acknowledge the importance of cutting wasteful expenditure in his own department.
It is also quite disconcerting that the minister has "noted with great concern" the parliamentary questions posed by members of parliament on this matter. The executive branch has no authority to tell members what questions they should and should not be asking. We do not need to justify these questions; we will keep asking the tough questions that hold ministers to account, and expose wasteful and fruitless spending. That is how our democracy is designed to work. It is our Constitutional mandate.
In announcing his own department's austerity measures, the minister stated that "it remained vital to maintain fiscal forethought during this economic climate", and "the department remains firm in the conviction that government funds should be directed at the practical implementation of delivery of services to the people and minimise spending on all areas where it's avoidable". Again, this makes no sense if he believes the DA should stop asking questions about the government's wasteful expenditure in other areas.
The priorities of the ANC executive need to change, and they need to remember that they are supposed to be serving the people of South Africa, not their own starry eyed interests. The purchase of luxury vehicles by ministers has now reached absurd proportions. There is no way to justify a government minister buying a Porsche, even while service delivery backlogs become endemic. The president ought to step in, show some leadership ability, and order that the vehicle is returned.
Statement issued by Anchen Dreyer MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of public service and administration, December 11 2008
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
