Marion Edmunds
Parliamentarians are making mileage out of the taxpayer — MPs and senators get to keep “voyager miles” earned while flying on official business, and may use them to pay for their holidays or personal business.
South African taxpayers last year paid for R21,5- million worth of flights for parliamentarians. This involved 20 317 transactions which translates into many thousands of “voyager miles” which MPs and Senators kept for their own private use.
Minister of Water Affairs, and chairman of the National Assembly Ethics Committee, Kader Asmal, says that the question of “voyager miles” is not an ethical one, but he concedes that it might be better if those miles were given back to the government, rather than awarded to parliamentarians for personal trips.
Asmal said that, following questions from the Mail & Guardian, he had asked the Department of Finance to investigate whether “voyager miles” should be handed back to the state. A Department of Finance spokeswoman said this week that there was no specific inquiry into “voyager miles”, although the matter was being reviewed as part of a general “belt-tightening” review.