{"id":61775,"date":"2014-07-02T11:34:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T09:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=61775"},"modified":"2014-07-02T11:34:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T09:34:58","slug":"science-and-technologys-r1-million-pot-plant-splurge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/61775\/science-and-technologys-r1-million-pot-plant-splurge\/","title":{"rendered":"Science and Technology&#8217;s R1 million pot plant splurge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Science and Technology has spent R1,074,429 on \u201cthe maintenance of indoor plants\u201d within the past five years.<\/p>\n<p>This was revealed in a reply to a DA parliamentary question.<\/p>\n<p>According to the reply, the Department spent:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>R487,710.12 between 2009 and 2011;<\/li>\n<li>R225,796.47 during the 2011\/12 financial year;<\/li>\n<li>R240,555.96 during the 2012\/13 financial year;<\/li>\n<li>R120,278 during the 2013\/14 financial year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to Annelie Lotriet, DA shadow minister of Science and Technology, the minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, admitted that her department has already spent a further R90,000 on indoor plant maintenance this financial year, and intends to spend at least R380,000 this financial year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will write to the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), Themba Godi, and request that minister Pandor be summoned to Parliament to account for her department\u2019s skewed priorities,&#8221; Lotriet said.<\/p>\n<p>The DA pointed out that other departments with offices across the country such as the Department of Tourism have keep their pot plant expenditure for the past five years to below R20,000.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A department spending over a R1 million on pot plants for a single building over the past five years is simply unjustifiable and clear waste of state resources,&#8221; Lotriet said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on South Africa<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Eliminate wasteful spending and corruption: Gordhan\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/53669\/eliminate-wasteful-spending-and-corruption-gordhan\/\"><strong>Eliminate wasteful spending and corruption: Gordhan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Zuma cabinet to cost SA tax payers R1.3 billion\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/61353\/zuma-cabinet-to-cost-sa-tax-payers-r1-3-billion\/\"><strong>Zuma cabinet to cost SA tax payers R1.3 billion<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"DA proposes new ministerial handbook for Gauteng\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/56717\/da-proposes-new-ministerial-handbook-for-gauteng\/\"><strong>DA proposes new ministerial handbook for Gauteng<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Science and Technology has spent R1,074,429 on \u201cthe maintenance of indoor plants\u201d within the past five years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":61781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1329,26,2152],"class_list":["post-61775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-da","tag-headline","tag-naledi-pandor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61775","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=61775"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61787,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61775\/revisions\/61787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}