What will it take for Lulu Xingwana to get her priorities straight?
The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) has announced that it is planning another overseas trip to New York in September this year. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of South Africans with disabilities go without government assistance because of administrative chaos in the Department.
What will it take for Lulu Xingwana to get her priorities straight?
How can it be right that her Department's travel budget amounts to R24.9 million when it only budgets R15.4 million on its disability programme?
Why does the Department find it so easy to spend (and exceed) its travel budget but struggles to spend the money allocated to programmes that could actually help South Africans in need?
If the Minister and her deputy love travel so much, why don't they take a trip around South Africa to see how disabled people live in our poorest communities?
The truth is that this Ministry does not work for the vulnerable South Africans it is supposed to represent. It jets from conference to conference, ostensibly to honour its international obligations as a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
We wonder if the drafters of that Convention envisaged a Ministry spending its energies on travelling to UN conferences while neglecting the very people it is supposed to represent.
When questioned on the costs of previous trips to Chicago and New York, Minister Xingwana memorably replied that she cannot be expected to stay in a "pondok" and fly "lala-class".
We know that R6.8 million was spent on the previous New York trip, of which R1.1 million was funded by the DWCPD. Our parliamentary questions last year on the Chicago trip in October remain unanswered. I will today be submitting further questions to determine:
- Who will be part of the delegation;
- which flight class will they travel;
- how much will the flights cost;
- at which hotel will they stay;
- how much will the accommodation cost;
- which meetings and sessions will they be attending;
- whether the Minister will give feedback to the Portfolio committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities on the outcomes of the trip.
The rights of millions of women, children and people with disabilities continue to be violated, while the DWCPD is struggling to get its priorities right. We have requested the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to investigate and will continue to monitor the activities of this department closely.
Statement issued by Helen Lamoela MP, DA Shadow Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, April 20 2012
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