There are no clear written or recorded guidelines that specify the conditions under which the government can authorise the use of South African Air Force jets for the deputy president, the Mail & Guardian learned this week.
This despite presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe’s insistence that Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s family trip to Dubai last December was in line with Cabinet guidelines. He did, however, concede, after M&G requests for a copy of the guidelines, that no specific stipulations were in place for the position of deputy president.
Morobe said that the ”conventions that have been evolved would have to be codified in the presidency”. The documents are not yet ready for public circulation and were classified for security reasons, he said. Morobe said the presidency considers a ministerial handbook in its arrangement of air force flights for the president and deputy president, but that final decisions are influenced by security requirements.
Chapter six of the 2003 Handbook for Members of the Executive and Presiding Officers says that members of the executive and presiding officers may use the air force if there are time constraints in reaching their destination by other means, in the interests of passenger safety and if commercial air transportation is not available.
The handbook says: ”It is the responsibility of members and their support staff to determine whether the intended journey meets the requirements contained in these guidelines.”
Additionally, the handbook states that the relevant department will cover the costs of the aircraft. Captain Ronald Maseko, an air force media liaison officer, says the presidency submits an air transportation request to the air force for use of its aircraft. The air force responds with information on which aircraft are available. ”If the government calls on the air force, the air force must answer that call,” says Maseko.
The deputy president’s five-day trip on an air force Falcon 900 jet to the United Arab Emirates last December cost the taxpayer at least R400 000. ”In the absence of the details of the administrative rules governing her allowances, it appears on the face of it to be misuse of taxpayers’ money,” said Colm Allan, the director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor based at Rhodes University.
”In what respect can the use of R400 000 in private travel for her and her family not be considered to be improperly benefiting herself.” Allan cited the 2001 case in the Eastern Cape when then premier Makhenkesi Stofile used R20 000 in taxpayers’ money to fund flights for family members. He was made to repay the money because it was not covered by the ministerial guidelines.
On Thursday, Mlambo-Ngcuka finally broke her silence over the flight controversy, claiming that part of her five-day trip was business related.
She said she was on a fact-finding mission to study crane-building businesses in the United Arab Emirates that could inform South Africa’s accelerated growth initiative for which she is responsible.