“Oyster Box” minister’s travel costs back in the spotlight
Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, is again in the firing line of the Democratic Alliance after a report showed a big rise in her department’s travel and related expenses at a time when officials have been asked to curb unnecessary spending.
The Department of Social Development’s 2015/16 Annual Report has revealed that travel and subsistence expenses for the year was 12% higher at R121.5 million, against a budget of R98.6 million in the previous financial year.
Dlamini caused a stir in the middle of the year when it was alleged that she stayed at the luxurious Oyster Box in Umhlanga at a cost of R11,000 per night. The DA said that Dlamini had booked herself into the hotel on more than one occasion.
The minister also stated earlier this year that social grant beneficiaries should be able to live on R753 per month to buy “adequate food as well as additional non-food items”.
In the 2014/2015 financial year Dlamini and her support staff spent R1.6 million on four separate trips to New York, with the overall overseas bill amounting to R12 million.
“At a time when millions of South Africans are facing starvation, and the ANC is stubbornly refusing to make above-inflation increases to social grants – as requested by the DA – outrageous travel and subsistence expenditure is a slap in the face of so many poor South Africans struggling to make a living,” said Lindy Wilson, DA shadow deputy minister of social development.
Wilson said that despite written questions asking for a breakdown of the travel costs, hotel costs, VIP cars and size of delegations by the minister and the deputy minister in the previous financial year, the minister only accounted for R2.8 million of the R12 million spent on overseas trips.
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