Skypigs in Taxis from July to July

The South African Air Force (SAAF) spent six times longer flying VIPs than it did training pilots in fighter craft last year. This is despite a chronic shortage of pilots that experts say has already wiped out the country's air-combat capabilities.

The department of defence's 2008-09 annual report records 325 flying hours for air-combat capability in the SAAF's medium fighter craft Gripens and Cheetahs. By contrast the VIP fleet flew 1932 hours in the same period -- 1570 hours domestically and 362 internationally.

The Mail & Guardian has established that Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu made 23 trips using the VIP fleet from September to October 2009, on three occasions travelling with her son.

The 325 flying hours for medium fighter craft recorded last year represents a plummeting from 2 448 hours in 2007-08 and 2 084 hours 2006-07. The SAAF has cited budgetary constraints in Parliament for the decline.

Arms deal whistle-blower Richard Young said that the SAAF did not have combat-ready capability and that the country has only six capable jet fighter pilots. And DA defence spokesperson David Maynier said Sisulu’s recent trips could have cost taxpayers as much as R2,3-million.

But defence department spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told the M&G "the costs [of flying VIPs] actually do not exist as this is part of the SAAF operations on a daily basis". "The fixed cost to the SAAF as per our own price when we charge other departments is R14 748,54 per trip with a special rate for internal use by the minister," he said.

"It must be noted that this cost will be incurred [whether] a minister flies or not, because the planes will have to be used for training, pilots paid, etc, and runway[s] will still have to be maintained," he said.

More Cabinet members should use the air force, Mabaya said, "as [this] will provide real flying time for the pilots and also because resources for training are already allocated and many of our senior pilots have cited lack of flying time for leaving the air force".

Asked specifically about the rates for flying Sisulu Mabaya said: "We fly planes as our main business, [so] we can actually fly Cabinet members for free. The more hours we fly the better for our pilots and the country."

Young said the notion that these flights were free was "simply nonsense": "Flying not only has costs, but reduces the life of the aircraft." And "one does not fly a Cabinet minister about in order to train pilots," he said.

"Flying hours are required in all types of aircraft, but there should be maximum use in true combat training aircraft such as Pilatus, Hawk and the two-seater Gripen, and a minimum in other classes," Young said.

Since the beginning of the year Sisulu has refused to answer DA parliamentary questions about her use of the SAAF VIP fleet, and has not comprehensively responded to questions about the 222 national and international flights for VIPs undertaken by the SAAF.

The DA has in previous years routinely requested, and received, a detailed record of VIP flights from the defence department. This year the department stopped providing these records.

Despite this, records of VIP flights for the period January 1 2007 to October 16 2008 tabled in Parliament suggest Mabaya's flight cost estimations miss the mark by a mile. The records show that the cheapest national VIP flight was made by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in May 2007 from Waterkloof air force base in Pretoria to Port Elizabeth and cost R32 651,75.

"From time to time it may be necessary and justified for the minister to use military aircraft to deal with urgent matters relating to the defence force, especially after the military unions trashed the Union Buildings," Maynier said. "But this is a very poor attempt to 'spin' the routine use of military aircraft by the minister.

"It is simply not cost-effective to use military aircraft if the average cost per domestic flight is R100 000. The minister ought to be making use of commercial aircraft for domestic flights, which would save the taxpayer more than R90 000 per domestic flight."

In August, the defence ministry told Parliament that 48% of posts for combat pilots were vacant, as were 34% of posts for helicopter pilots and 30% of posts for transport pilots.

At the time Sisulu said she was "personally really satisfied with the state of readiness" of the defence force. - M&G

Why fly when you can claim twice the fare

MPs might still be skimming off thousands of rands in taxpayers money through "exorbitant" travel costs despite the lessons of the 2003 Travelgate scandal, warned Independent Democratic Party (ID) leader Patricia de Lille.

De Lille asked Parliament to "clamp down" after allegations arose that some MPs were "supplementing their salaries with R30 000 to R40 000 a month" by choosing to travel by road to their constituencies as this saw them paid out in cash for mileage.

Some MPs had allegedly submitted "exorbitant road travel claims" that often cost Parliament more than double the cost of air tickets, De Lille said.

Parliament's travel rules have been tightened repeatedly over the past few years, but De Lille believes a few MPs have found loopholes.

Those who travel more than 800km to their constituencies or homes are allowed to claim R1 150 for an overnight hotel stay on both legs of a return journey if they are travelling by car. Road travel also secures cash pay-outs for mileage, although MPs have to forfeit two of their 86 free annual air tickets for every return journey.

"I find it incredible that political parties in Parliament have not learnt from Travelgate and clamped down on MPs who insist on looting public money," she said yesterday.

"This goes against the Speaker's challenge to newly elected MPs in his budget speech earlier this year to exercise greater responsibility in the use of parliamentary resources."

The ID has tried to substantiate the allegations by requesting a detailed breakdown of travel records for all MPs from National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu, suggesting that Parliament's oversight responsibility should not stop at holding the executive accountable for the travel expenses, but that MPs should be under scrutiny and "lead by example".

In a letter last week, however, Sisulu declined the request, stating the right to privacy and citing "a security risk" to MPs.

He suggested De Lille take her concerns to Parliament's Joint Rules Committee or use access to information legislation to get the information, which would afford MPs the chance to argue why their details should not be disclosed. - Pretoria News

New source of O3 unearthed...

The police's R150m private jet, which was purchased for "operational purposes", is being used to ferry ministers around. (from News 24)

It emerged on Tuesday that ministers had travelled on the plane 12 times between September last year and March this year, including visits to provinces shortly before the elections.

Meanwhile, the air force has a special fleet of planes to take ministers and highly placed officials to their destinations.

Last year, Die Burger reported how the unique jet from the US landed quietly at Lanseria Airport on a Friday night.

Police at the time defended the expensive purchase, saying that the private jet was acquired for operational purposes and to replace the "ancient" Beechcraft which dated back to 1969.

The new Cessna Citation Sovereign can fly for 5 000 continuous hours and land on short runways. The jet plane is therefore able to deploy task force members at almost any location in all nine provinces, and is suitable for use all over Africa.

Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, answered a parliamentary question from DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard on Tuesday, indicating that the jet was not always used for the purposes for which it had been acquired.

The former minister of safety and security and his deputy were flown to an event in Kimberley in September 2008. They also attended "police operations" in December 2008 in George and Cape Town and in January this year, attended the opening of a police office in Ulundi.

The jet was also used in at least nine other trips, for ministers - it is unclear who - to visit provinces shortly before the general election.

Ministry of Human Settlements prefer Hotels

Tokyo Sexwale's ministry of human settlements spent an average of R72,000 a day over 103 days on wining, dining and hotels...

In the past seven months Sexwale, his deputy Zoliswa Kota-Fredericks, the director-general, Itumeleng Kotsoane, and his deputy spent more than R7.4-million on hotel accommodation, restaurants and travel.

Between April 2008 and October 20 this year, R59-million was spent by the department.

This emerged in a written parliamentary response to questions posed by the DA.

In the past seven months, Kotsoane splurged close to R30,000 in restaurants and more than R1-million on travel, while his deputy spent R800,000 on travel.

The department of public works spent R132-million in one financial year on travel, hotel accommodation and restaurants.

Spokesman Lucky Mochalibane said the department had "remained within the budget under goods and services".

Between April and October this year, more than R8-million was spent on hotel accommodation and restaurants, while R24-million was spent on travel. - Times Live