Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka should be made to repay nearly R10 000 spent on a private flight for a medical doctor who accompanied her on an Abu Dhabi vacation last year, the Freedom Front Plus said on Tuesday.
”It is quite clear that the deputy president had taken so many friends and family with [her], that there hadn’t been a seat available for the medical doctor on her flight,” the party said in a statement.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has confirmed, in response to a Parliamentary question, that a medical doctor flew on a separate commercial flight when Mlambo-Ngcuka visited the United Arab Emirates last December.
She travelled on an air force plane.
A medical doctor is required to accompany the deputy president on all overseas trips.
The doctor’s commercial flight came at a cost of R9 533 to the SA Military Health Service, the minister’s reply stated.
”These are unnecessary extra expenses because the doctor had to accompany the deputy president on the same aircraft,” the FF Plus said.
The party would ask the Auditor-General to recover the expenses from Mlambo-Ngcuka personally.
”The question can also be asked what would have happened if the deputy president became ill or even had a heart attack … while there was no doctor on board.”
In a separate response, Lekota has confirmed the flight cost the taxpayer R519 857,86.
In the National Assembly earlier this month, President Thabo Mbeki said his deputy’s use of an SAAF jet to fly to Abu Dhabi and back on holiday was correct in terms of security arrangements.
Seven other people, including her husband Bulelani and friend Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya — the wife of Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya — accompanied Mlambo-Ngcuka on the flight. – Sapa