The public protector confirmed on Wednesday it had received complaints from two opposition parties about deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s state-funded holiday.
”Yes, we received the complaints yesterday [Tuesday] and are busy studying them,” said spokesperson Selby Bokaba.
A statement outlining how and when Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana would handle the issue was to be issued later in the day.
The requests for the matter to be investigated came from the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus.
Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) had also been asked to investigate.
Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said he received a letter from the DA on Monday, asking the committee to probe whether the trip violated provisions of the Public Finance Management Act.
”I’ve responded, as is procedure, that a full sitting of the committee would decide on the way forward.”
The committee would not automatically launch a probe as requested, and would first need to determine whether there was any substance to the complaint.
The committee was expected to have its first sitting of the year in the next week or two, Godi said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka’s trip on an SA Air Force jet to the United Arab Emirates last month, reportedly costing about R700 000, has been condemned as extravagant by opposition political parties.
The DA said the trip, which included family members and friends, amounted to an ethics violation.
The presidency defended the trip on Tuesday, saying no laws had been broken.
It dismissed claims that Mlambo-Ngcuka abused her power by taking along Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya — wife of Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.
Mazibuko-Skweyiya went along because she was voluntarily involved in growth initiatives in South Africa, presidency spokesperson Murphy Morobe explained on Tuesday.
The deputy president had decided to use her state-funded private trip as an opportunity to learn from the growth and women empowerment projects of the UAE, and viewed Mazibuko-Skweyiya as ”the right person” to take along, he said.
The state paid for security, transport and associated costs for all private and official trips by the president and deputy, said Morobe.
The true cost of the trip, as yet unknown, would be published in the presidency’s annual report.
The Emir of the UAE had provided accommodation for Mlambo-Ngcuka and her party at a government guesthouse, and the UAE government had covered some transport and incidental costs of the visit.
The FF Plus has asked Mushwana to probe the link between Mlambo-Ngcuka and Mazibuko-Skweyiya — reportedly implicated in the so-called Oilgate scandal with the deputy president’s brother Bonga Mlambo.
”That the two would be travelling together in specifically that part of the world does seem rather odd,” he said on Tuesday.
”The public protector needs to consider whether this is really all that innocent.” – Sapa