Armscor spent R3m on holidays

The DA wants Armscor to account for splurging more than

R3 million on luxury hotels and first and business-class air tickets "like Fortune 500 fat cats"

to attend international defence shows while complaining to Treasury about insufficient funds to carry out its mandate.

In a written reply to a parliamentary question by DA defence spokesman David Maynier, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu produced a detailed schedule of trips.

It details visits to Malayasia, France, Qatar, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and the UK as well as journeys within South Africa between April 2008 and April 2009 - and shows that an SANDF general and the spouses of Armscor's top brass often tagged along - at Armscor's expense.

"The DA believes that it is outrageous for Popo Molefe, chairman of the Armscor Board, Sipho Thomo, suspended CEO, and senior staff to spend nearly R3m on attending international defence exhibitions all over the world," Maynier said yesterday

"The top management at Armscor always complain that they do not get enough money from government, but then rather than tighten their belts, they behave like Fortune 500 fat cats, flying first class, inviting spouses and guests along for the ride and staying at five-star hotels."

He pointed out that in the Armscor 2008/2009 annual report, Thomo, who is facing disciplinary charges, complained that the Department of Defence transfer payments over the past three years amounted to a decrease in real terms, and because of that there was "a long term risk that Armscor may not be able to fulfill its mandate".

Armscor's report showed a net decline in profits of R6.1m and a net loss of about R9m. This is despite the fact that the government transfer to the entity was over R50m more this year than last year's R479m, without which Armscor would have been R441.1m in the red at the end of the financial year.

"The DA will therefore write to Nyami Booi, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, and ask that Sipho Mkwanazi, Acting CEO of Armscor, account to Parliament and provide a briefing on what austerity measures will be put in place to stop wasteful expenditure at Armscor."

He said a total of R2 902 843 was spent on flights, accommodation, transport as well as S&T for attending eight defence exhibitions.

Nearly R1.4m was spent on flights including first-class and business-class international flights. The most expensive trip was R95 924 for Molefe and his wife to fly to London for the Defence Services and Equipment International exhibition in London in September last year.

Hotel stays at luxury resorts like the Shangri-La in Malaysia and Sheraton Khalidaya in the UAE, amounted to nearly R1.15m. The UAE IDEX 2009 defence exhibition in February saw Thomo splurging R72 792 on a four-night stay at the Khalidaya.

Maynier said Thomo spent R12 382 on accommodation for another four nights at the Radisson in Cape Town during last year's Africa Aerospace and Defence expo.

A total of R197 450 was spent on first class flights and five star hotels for General Solly Shoke, Chief of the Army, who attended South Africa's Denel Saab Aerostructures exhibition in Malaysia in April and the UAE trip in February.

"Quite why it was necessary for General Shoke to attend the defence exhibitions at Armscor's expense is not clear," Maynier said.

• This article was originally published on page 2 of The Independent on Saturday on December 12, 2009

More O3 land machines

Cape Town - A deputy minister has bought herself a Porsche as her official vehicle, but Richard Baloyi, minister of public service and administration, insists no rules have been broken.

On Thursday it came to light that Hlengiwe Mkhize, deputy minister of correctional services, has bought herself a brand-new Porsche Cayenne as her official vehicle.

Taxpayers shelled out R760 000 for this luxury speedster, including accessories such as cruise control.

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the minister of correctional services, said in answer to a question from the DA in Parliament, that she has bought a Lexus LS460 worth R970 000.

Baloyi couldn't understand why the DA MPs continued to pose questions regarding expensive official vehicles, since the Cabinet has already "settled" the matter on various occasions.

'Used for state duties'

According to a statement, the minister is concerned about opposition MPs' stubbornness regarding the matter.

"Official vehicles don't belong to the ministers. They are and remain state property, and simply serve as a tool used by ministers to fulfil their duties," said Baloyi.

He continued along the same vein, stating that the ministerial manual entitles each minister to buy two vehicles - one for Cape Town and one for Pretoria. The price of the vehicle may not exceed 70% of the minister's annual compensation package.

This package is worth over R1.7m.

"MPs must understand that no minister has broken the rules," said Baloyi... - News24

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

Pandor panders to ego with TWO new Mercedes ML350

The science and technology department has spent R1.4m on TWO Mercedes-Benz ML350's for Minister Naledi Pandor. (News24)

In her reply, Pandor said one of the previous two vehicles had a gearbox fault and the cars had registered 141 000km and 106 000km respectively.

A reply to another question, showed the police department had spent R1.3m on replacement vehicles for Minister Nathi Mthethwa - two BMW X5s.

Extras included reverse cameras, navigation system, and sport suspension, coming to about R200 000.

In his reply, Mthethwa said the two previous vehicles - a BMW X5, 2003 model and an Audi A8 2006 model, were both "mechanical[ly] unsound".