Thursday, November 29, 2012

Tina I-Fly-Twice Joemat Pettersson vervloek Madonsela's se ma se


Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson on Tuesday rejected claims that she wasted taxpayers' money, following findings by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

"The perception by the media that the minister was extravagant is rejected with the contempt it deserves," the ministry's spokeswoman Palesa Mokomele said in a statement.

Madonsela on Monday said President Jacob Zuma should consider reprimanding Joemat-Pettersson for violating the executive ethics code.

In her findings she said the department's acting director general should recover about R150,000 the minister incurred for return flights for her two children and their au pair from Sweden to South Africa in January 2010.

The ministry welcomed Madonsela's recommendation of remedial action. Mokomele said the ministry would develop an implementation plan and submit it to the Public Protector within the stipulated time frame.

The minister travelled to Sweden on official business in December 2009. The trip was combined with a family holiday, which started on December 23, at the end of her official trip.

However, Joemat-Pettersson had to cut the holiday short when the presidency recalled her. She returned on January 1, 2010.

Mokomele said the minister had paid for the original tickets and accommodation for her children and their au pair, but did not cover the costs of the changes to the tickets.

She said Joemat-Pettersson would have purchased new return tickets for all three if she had been correctly advised.

The Protector found the minister's former chief of staff, Bafedile Bopape, wrongfully advised her regarding the return flights.

"Bopape provided minister Joemat-Pettersson with incorrect advice in respect of the department’s responsibility to pay for the return air tickets of the minister’s children and au pair when she was recalled from Sweden in January 2010," Madonsela said.

It was also investigated whether Joemat-Pettersson used public funds to pay for expensive accommodation at hotels while she was awaiting the allocation of her official residences in Cape Town and Pretoria.

Joemat-Pettersson stayed at the 28A On Oxford Guest House from June 13 to July 11, 2010, for R420,000, and at the Peermont D'Oreale Grande Hotel at a cost of R289,352.

Joemat-Pettersson had not been allocated an official residence at the time.

"She (Joemat-Pettersson) stayed in a reasonably priced guesthouse in Pretoria for six months, which she vacated due to circumstances beyond her control," Mokomele said.

"The minister spent significant time, money and personal effort to relieve the burden that her lack of accommodation was placing on the state."

Madonsela recommended that Public Works fast-track the refurbishment of Joemat-Pettersson's official residence in Cape Town. She said the minister had been severely affected by the delay in providing accommodation.

The Protector was scathing of Bopape for the way she handled the minister's travel and accommodation expenses.

"In respect of her failure to provide minister Joemat-Pettersson with correct advice pertaining to the provisions of the Ministerial Handbook... which resulted in fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the department," she said.

- timelive

Monday, November 26, 2012

Madonsela finds Tina guilty of violating ethics code

Public protector Thuli Madonsela has found that Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson violated the executive ethics code.


President Jacob Zuma should consider reprimanding Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson for violating the executive ethics code, public protector Thuli Madonsela said on Monday.

Madonsela said the department's acting director general should recover about R150 000 Joemat-Pettersson unlawfully incurred for return flights of her two children and their au pair from Sweden to South Africa in January 2010.

The minister travelled to Sweden in December 2009 on official business, where she held meetings on matters relevant to her portfolio.

The trip was combined with a family holiday, which started at the end of the official trip on December 23. Joemat-Pettersson, however, had to cut the holiday short when she was recalled by the presidency and returned on January 1 2010.

"The return trips of the minister's children and au pair were paid for by the state in violation of the provisions of paragraph 3.4 of chapter 6 of the Ministerial Handbook, in the amount of R151 878," Madonsela found in her report.

The public protector also investigated whether the minister used public funds in occupying expensive accommodation at hotels while she was awaiting the allocation of her official residences in Cape Town and Pretoria. Expenses Joemat-Pettersson incurred include, among others, a month's stay at the Vineyard Hotel and Spa in Cape Town during June and July 2009 at a cost of R134 735, a five-week stay at the Peermont D'Oreal Grande Emperor's Palace in Johannesburg between September 16 and October 21 2009 at a total cost of R289 352 and a month spent at the Pure Toys One CC in Johannesburg during the 2010 Fifa World Cup at a cost of R420 000.

Last year, President Jacob Zuma was forced to fire Sicelo Shiceka, the late minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, after Madonsela found him to have acted unlawfully, of being dishonest with public money and in contravention of the Cabinet's executive ethics code as well as the Constitution. 

Sapa

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Sisulu speaking with forked tongue

 THE Democratic Alliance has cast more doubt on former defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu over her alleged abuse of the defence force's VIP jets during her tenure, by charging that she was now contradicting herself.


This comes just a day after Sisulu did some damage control and chastised her predecessor Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for her "misleading" information which suggested Sisulu made 203 flights on the defence force's ultra-luxury Gulf-stream Jets. For 69 of these flights she was allegedly not even on board.

The flights, between Pretoria and Cape Town, are said to have cost more than R200000 each .

On Saturday, Sisulu, who is now public service minister, denied this as "false and misleading". She claimed that she only made 35 official trips on the aircraft, which is operated by the SA Reserve Force Squadron.

Her spokesman Ndivuwo Mabaya said Sisulu had written to Mapisa-Nqakula, requesting that the parliamentary reply which revealed this information be withdrawn and corrected. He said the information submitted "misled Parliament and the nation".

He said there must be some confusion as it was almost impossible for anyone to make so many trips.

"It means you are sleeping in the plane," he said.

But DA spokesman on defence David Maynier threw another gauntlet at Sisulu, pointing to aprevious parliamentary reply which contradicts this.

In her response, Sisulu said between 2009 and 2012 she undertook 79 flights, said Maynier.

"The minister is clearly trying to use what amounts to a political smoke grenade to obscure the truth ..."

- Sowetan

Friday, November 9, 2012

Lindiwe Sisulu's fancy flights pure indulgence

The South African Air Force thought nothing of ferrying the minister around at enormous cost to the taxpayer.

The South African Air Force splurged up to R68 000 an hour to fly the former minister of defence and military veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, regularly on ultra-luxury Gulfstream jets during the past three years.

Before Sisulu became minister of public service and administration in June this year, the South African Air Force was chartering Gulfstream jets like taxis for her, frequently ferrying her for up-country trips and back to Cape Town on the same day, according to an inside military source.

Last week Sisulu was found to have taken a significant number of flights on chartered jets, but her spokesperson has blamed the R40-million she notched up on trips from 2009 to 2012 on decisions taken by the South African National Defence Force.

Many of the flights were domestic trips. If she had flown business class on South African Airways, a return trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town would have cost the government R4 899 at current prices. However, the Mail & Guardian has been reliably informed that a return flight from Lanseria outside Johannesburg (where many of the charter companies are stationed) via the Waterkloof Air Force Base on the outskirts of Pretoria to Ysterplaat in Cape Town on a Gulfstream jet cost the air force more than R200 000, which does not include the cost of the pilot and crew, food and landing costs.


The ministerial hand­book for members of the executive and presiding officers states that members of the executive may use military aircraft for official use under exceptional circumstances only, but clearly this has not been regulated.

The Reserve Squadron 111 handles VIP and IP (important people) guests and reconnaissance flights. It came under fire from the auditor general in the 2011-2012 financial year for irregular expenditure of R160-million arising from the "sourcing of aircraft".

Veil of secrecy
The chartering of Gulfstream and other executive jets by the air force's reserve squadron is hidden behind a veil of secrecy, the M&G has found.

One of the companies that has been regularly used is the Lanseria-based corporate jet service Zenith Air, the M&G was told, but others are used as well. There appear to be about 14 companies in South Africa that lease out Gulfstream jets.

Zenith's sole director, Craig Gnesin, who is a pilot, would not discuss any business he had done with the air force, although he admitted that it had used Zenith Air's planes in the past. "I don't have to answer these questions. It is an in-house South African Air Force matter."

His father, businessman Ray­mond Gnesin, was more forthcoming. He said Zenith Air's Gulfstream jets, one of which has the bling registration ZS-VIP, are held in a family trust.

"The family trust owns the aircraft and leases them to Zenith, which runs a charter operation," said Gnesin Sr. "Anybody can charter the jets and they will all pay the same rates. There is nothing dubious about it. We are strictly in the charter business."

The company did not offer discount rates, he said.

"Zenith will fly coffins for funerals and we will take you wherever you want. As long as everything is above board and kosher, the charter company is up for it."

Zenith Air's Gulfstream jets can take between 11 and 12 passengers and boast ultra-soft leather sets and galley kitchens. Gnesin Snr said he had bought the jets second-hand in the United States.

Gulfstream jets
The company quotes its fees in dollars, which amount to R68 000 a flying hour "all in", which includes the pilot and other costs.

Last week Sisulu was accused by Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier of spending R40-million on her VIP flights over three years, many of which were on Gulfstream jets. Maynier said the major concern was that millions of rands appeared to have been wasted on hundreds of empty VIP "ferry" flights.

Maynier found that 203 flights were requested for Sisulu on the Gulfstream jets, but 69 of them were "ferry" flights to fetch her and take her to a destination. "This is a staggering waste of public funds when so many people in our country are poor," said Maynier. "Thankfully, the minister's wings have been clipped and she finds herself grounded … condemned to chicken or beef, on SAA, for the remainder of her term."

Asked by the M&G why she had not travelled on SAA, especially because many of her flights were domestic, Sisulu's spokesperson, Ndivhuwo Mabaya, said she had no say over which planes she used and it was the air force that made the decisions.

"The South African National Defence Force insisted that, for all SANDF duties, their minister must be transported by their pilots," he said. "And the pilots came with a plane, which they choose, not the minister. It was not a decision taken by Minister Sisulu but by the SANDF, and for many years before the minister was appointed."

Constituency work
For her ANC work, Sisulu opted for SAA, said Mabaya. "Actually Minister Sisulu flew SAA for much of her ANC and constituency work."

Mabaya said Sisulu was not aware of the cost implications of her jet travel, because all the decisions regarding it were made by the defence force.

"It is still there today; it is a policy of the SANDF," said Mabaya. "I can conclude that, due to the age of the planes, they had to hire a lot [of other aircraft] to meet their own obligations and commitments."

Defence force spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said it should be noted that the defence minister was just one of the VIPs the air force was mandated to transport.

"I am not aware of any board of inquiry, as mentioned in your query," said Dlamini.

"However, I am aware of an exercise looking into the costing model of the reserve force aircraft.

"Lastly, any requirement by the South African Air Force is processed within and through national treasury regulations," Dlamini said.

According to air force information recently disclosed to Parliament, since April 1 this year no Gulfstream jets had been used by the air force.

It would appear that seat belts are now being tightened.

- M&G