Joemat-Pettersson must stop playing the blame game

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, refuses to take responsibility for spending more than R1,5 million on hotel expenditure in the last two years. Instead, she wants to discipline officials in her department who wrote the response to the parliamentary question, claiming that they "misled" her and Parliament.

This is bizarre, considering that it is the Minister herself who signed off on the reply. Why did she not apply her mind when she read the draft response?

The fact is, either the Minister did stay at these fancy hotels and is embarrassed about her reckless expenditure, or she did not stay at these hotels, but could not care enough to read her parliamentary reply, which is released to the public as a statement of fact.

Either way, Minister Joemat-Pettersson has to answer for her actions.

The Minister has also tried to blame the Department of Public Works for failing to provide her with a decent residence in Pretoria and Cape Town in a timely manner. But the Minister is supposed to be a leader who will not waste public funds, no matter the circumstances. She cannot say that she is no longer bound by the Executive Ethics Code or the Constitution just because of some bureaucratic hiccups.

The Minister defies all sense when she tries to win our pity because she had to pay for some elements of her extravagant lifestyle herself. She complained, "I paid for electricity, water, garden and pool services for the whole year out of my own pocket and had to claim the expenses I incurred from [the department], certain claims of which they have refused to pay."

Ag shame. There is nothing more unedifying than a Minister who earns R1.4 million a year asking for sympathy. Perhaps she should spare a thought for the millions of South Africans who struggle to pay their own water and electricity bills every month.

The Minister has said that she welcomes any probe by the Public Protector into her hotel stays. The Democratic Alliance welcomes it too. Indeed, today I will be writing to the Public Protector again to update her on the discrepancies between what the Minister has said in her parliamentary reply and her recent press statements. We trust that the Public Protector will be able to sort through the contradictions and see beyond the Minister's blame game.

Statement issued by Lourie Bosman MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, October 28 2011

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