{"id":106545,"date":"2015-12-08T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=106545"},"modified":"2015-12-08T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T10:59:09","slug":"motshekgas-5-star-luxury-travel-bill-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/106545\/motshekgas-5-star-luxury-travel-bill-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Motshekga\u2019s 5 star luxury travel bill revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga&#8217;s travel bill over the past three years is littered with 5 Star luxury accommodation, courtesy of tax paying South Africans.<\/p>\n<p>While the country continues to tackle massive funding shortfalls in the education sector, a <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B_-slGu8-FTxTzVzazg4VkxDUjQ\/view\" target=\"_blank\">reply to a parliamentary question<\/a> posed by the Democratic Alliance showed that minister Motshekga&#8217;s hotel accommodation cost <strong>R594,999.54<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Minister Mohammed Surty spent <strong>an additional R313,360.20<\/strong> on hotel stays in the past 3 financial years, bringing the total for the two heads to over R908,000.<\/p>\n<p>The minister&#8217;s hotel trips included a stay at the 5-star Oyster Box in Umhlanga Rocks at R6,609.03 per night, and the 5-star Hilton in Durban, which cost R4,997 for one night.<\/p>\n<p>The minister also took no less then 12 visits to the 5-star Fusion Boutique Hotel in Limpopo, with a single night costing up to R4,348.28.<\/p>\n<p>For international travel, two nights in Luanda cost R34,880 to attend a women&#8217;s workshop at the 5-star Hotel de Convencoes de Talatona.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_106553\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Angie-Motshekga.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-106553\" class=\"size-full wp-image-106553\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Angie-Motshekga.png\" alt=\"Angie Motshekga\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Angie-Motshekga.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Angie-Motshekga-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-106553\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angie Motshekga<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As part of an official visit to London with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), she was booked into the 5-star Royal Horseguards which boasts &#8220;refurbished Victorian elegance&#8221; at R71,895.99 for five nights.<\/p>\n<p>Seven nights at the 5-star Hyatt Paris Madeleine in November 2013 cost R63,693.98, while on an official trip with Dirco.<\/p>\n<p>The DA noted that it cost taxpayers R44,175.36 when the minister attended the ANC conference in Mangaung.<\/p>\n<p>According to a reply to the parliamentary question, Minister Motshekga used R44,175 of her ministerial budget to stay at the Tsogo Sun in Bloemfontein from the 14-20 December 2012.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know that Minister Motshekga was a delegate at the ANC\u2019s conference because her name is featured on the conference programme,&#8221; said Gavin Davis,\u00a0 DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In her reply to the parliamentary question, Minister Motshekga attempts to hide that she was in Bloemfontein on party business, citing &#8216;official meetings&#8217; as the reason for her visit to Bloemfontein. No mention is made of the ANC conference.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This dishonesty is unacceptable, especially in a reply to parliamentary question. If only Minister Motshekga was as economical with public money as she is with the truth,&#8221; Davis said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reporting with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/motshekgas-hotel-bill-nearly-r600-000-for-past-3-years-20151207\" target=\"_blank\">News24<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on SA ministers<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/98147\/why-the-labour-minister-skipped-meetings-for-5-years\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why the labour minister skipped meetings for 5 years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/96889\/communications-minister-blows-r600000-on-9-day-trip-to-us-luxury-goods-show\/\" target=\"_blank\">Communications minister blows R600,000 on 9 day trip to US luxury goods show<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/95759\/sa-public-service-only-a-little-bit-corrupt-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\">SA public service only a little bit corrupt: minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga&#8217;s travel bill over the past three years is littered with 5-Star luxury accommodation, courtesy of tax paying South Africans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":71071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1329,26],"class_list":["post-106545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-da","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106545"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106555,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106545\/revisions\/106555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}