Jaspreet Kindra
State-owned aircraft were used for 2314 unscheduled flights in KwaZulu-Natal in the past financial year, the province’s Director General, Richard Sizani, has revealed.
At the same time, the province’s Auditor General, Barry Wheeler, has reprimanded Premier Lionel Mtshali, King Goodwill Zwelithini and members of the provincial cabinet for unscheduled and unplanned flights over the same period that cost taxpayers millions of rands.
Wheeler noted that “deviations from normal flights between Durban and [the two provincial capitals] Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were made by public office-bearers, including His Majesty the King, without explanations or cabinet authority being endorsed on the flight requisition sheets”.
He said: “Trips were undertaken outside the province by the honourable premier and members of the executive council, and the reasons for the non-utilisation of commercial aircraft were not endorsed on the flight requisitions.”
In the absence of endorsement, Wheeler’s office could not authenticate the cost-effectiveness of the trips. Wheeler’s report was the subject of a hearing of the legislature’s public accounts committee two weeks ago.
In his report, tabled recently in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, Sizani says 2 314 non-scheduled flights were undertaken in 2000/2001 by a state-owned Lear Jet, Beechcraft Baron and a helicopter. Some of the flights were between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, a 30-minute drive.
The cost of the flights was not given. However, Democratic Party chief whip Belinda Scott has estimated that the monthly operational costs for the three aircraft was almost R1-million in 1998.
Sizani’s report cites a figure of more than R19-million as the cost of air transport and aerodrome service, including the non-scheduled flights.
It was reported earlier this year that Mtshali, who lives outside Durban, often flew to work in Ulundi and Pietermaritzburg. A representative of the premier’s office has also told the legislature’s public accounts committee that the national department is reviewing the ministerial handbook, which gives guidelines for the privileges of cabinet ministers and premiers. At the same time, in response to queries, the premier’s department said trips by the king were taken with cabinet approval.
The premier’s department told Wheeler’s office that the “late notification of venues for meetings by the national departments coupled with the stated intention of maximisation of time are the underlying reasons for the use of provincial aircraft”.
Wheeler also noted that several ferry flights which had no passengers on board were undertaken to collect Mtshali, cabinet members and other officials. The aircraft returned to base without passengers.
It has emerged in questions asked by Scott in the legislature that a Lear Jet was dispatched from Ulundi in September last year to ferry former KwaZulu-Natal premier Frank Mdlalose between Cape Town, Pretoria and his home in Newcastle.
Wheeler said the unscheduled flights were taken when seats were available on a Jet Stream aircraft, which carries officials between Ulundi and Pietermaritzburg, and Durban. He notes, however, that the operating cost of the Jet Stream aircraft was not recovered through the sale of tickets.
The New National Party’s Tino Volker said it was pointed out in the legislature that KwaZulu-Natal was the only province to operate an aviation service a carry-over from its homeland period. This was unconstitutional, Volker charged, as aviation services were not a provincial competency.
He also raised concerns about the thousands of rands of taxpayers’ money spent on ferrying officials daily between the two capitals.
“On many occasions due to bad weather, we were flown to Pietermaritzburg from Ulundi but were unable to land due to mist. We were then taken to Durban and transported to Pietermaritzburg on a bus.”
The premier’s department announced that it has hired a management consultant to review policy on the use of aircraft.