The R96 000 that Gauteng Provincial Minister Paul Mashatile splurged on a taxpayer-funded dinner at a French restaurant has cast a spotlight on the abuse of government credit cards and is further evidence of the growing high life of our public representatives.
A Mail & Guardian investigation this week revealed that there is no uniform set of rules governing the use of these cards. Mashatile has a limit of R400Â 000, while his other provincial and national counterparts are subject to much lower limits with clearer spending guidelines (see box).
A Star newspaper report in September recalled that Mashatile uses Auberge Michel and other top-end restaurants as his kitchen. He regularly dines out, with little evidence of any distinction made between legitimate entertainment and a life high on the hog.
The high life as well as the super-fortunes amassed by its leadership has political costs for the African National Congress’s identity as a mass grassroots movement.
Deputy president Jacob Zuma’s bid for the presidency is, in part, being fought on a grassroots ticket that casts President Thabo Mbeki’s ANC as a party of business.
The lust for the high life last weekend saw the party’s secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe attack the cult of the VIP in the ANC.
Addressing the ANC Limpopo provincial general council, he warned that the trappings of power were alienating the grassroots, Âcreating a “social gap”.
While government ministers justified their VIP status as necessary protocol, he warned, “It is that kind of protocol which has the potential to create a social gap between our public representatives and our people,” The Sunday Independent reported. Because they used VIP lounges at airport, were corralled in VIP sections at functions and were whisked by convoy through traffic, politicians had very little opportunity to interact with the public.
In August Mbeki attacked conspicuous consumption when he delivered the Desmond Tutu lecture and this week it was the turn of ANC national executive committee member Saki Macozoma, who, in an address at the centenary celeÂbrations of the Gandhi Satyagraha Passive Resistance Movement, said: “People often want all the power at all costs because they see that as the only opportunity for them to grab, for them to loot, for them to steal, and for them to create a system that actually tolerates all those kinds of behaviours.”
Mashatile’s whopping credit card bill is only the latest embarrassment the ANC has faced in relation to comrades, their credit cards and the uses of the public purse. Here are other examples:
- Ekurhuleni mayor Bavumile Vilakazi bought a R560 000 armour-plated Mercedes-Benz because he needed protection against criminals on whom he was cracking down. Vilakazi also spent massive amounts renovating his office and was eventually removed by the ANC after he took friends and their spouses on a trip to China, which was financed from council coffers.
- Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka spent R400 000 on a five-day crane-spotting trip to the United Arab Emirates accompanied by family members and a friend.
- This week Gauteng Health Minister Brian Hlongwa confirmed that he would spend R700Â 000 renovating his office
- Gauteng Housing Minister Nomvula Mokonyane spent R360 000 on a cocktail function to celebrate her budget speech in June
The response to public unhappiness with the splurges has been technocratic, revealing that the gap Motlanthe spoke about was already in place.
Mokonyane, for example, said the money was well spent on “stakeholder management”. Mashatile also said there was nothing wrong with hosting people at one of Johannesburg’s most expensive restaurants, insisting that, as a host, he could choose where he wanted to dine. Mashatile initially agreed to an interview but declined when we told him the subject.
About giving credit
The national treasury this week said there was no legislation regulating the use of credit cards but that government broadly discouraged their allocation. Treasury spokesperson Thoraya Pandy said each department decided how to regulate itself.
She said the accounting officers of departments, at provincial and national level, had a responsibility to ensure that no unauthorised and fruitless expenditure was incurred.
There is a concern that Parliament is not doing enough to interrogate departments about their expenditure figures and the financial systems they have put in place to prevent wasteful expenditure.
At the treasury itself, none of the politicians and civil servants carried credit cards. All officials are allowed to claim back from the department if they incur work-related expenses.
In other provinces
Eastern Cape
A provincial treasury circular, issued in 1997, prohibited all provincial departments from providing government credit cards to their ministers or senior officials. At the time the province was facing a deficit of R1,5-billion and it was estimated that 90% of provincial departments were not financially viable. This week we checked up with a few provincial departments to see if this was still the case:
- “Our minister does not use a government credit card and should the [minister] need to entertain, we make the arrangements and that comes out of the departmental budget and not the minister’s [budget],” said Nomandla Gobeni, personal assistant to Mkhangeli Matomela, Education Minister.
- “[The minister] only has a petrol card for official trips, and all other allowances are provided for in an allocated budget,” says Cecile Greyling, media officer for Finance Minister Billy Nel.
Given the province’s track record of poor financial management, perhaps taxpayers should be grateful for small mercies. “Every year without fail the Auditor General’s office comments on the lack of internal controls on fraud within departments in the Eastern Cape province,” says Adrienne Carlisle of the Public Service Accountability Monitor. Earlier this year Nel recommended that an investigation be conducted into the travel claims of various departments.
Western Cape
The spokesperson for the premier in the Western Cape, Nomshado Twala, said that the provincial government does not issue any credit cards to ministers and officials.
If ministers and top officials wish to claim business expenses incurred on their personal credit cards, they must produce receipts and motivate the expense before getting a refund.
North West
The provincial treasury oversees the use of official credit cards. The province’s policy is to provide credit cards to ministers, the premier and heads of departments only for official purposes. Each month the treasury receives an individual expenditure report on each card holder, which is perused for dubious transactions. Transactions are reviewed on a quarterly basis and card holders are informed of any concerns about the way in which they have used the card. All credit card accounts are audited once a year. The credit cards cannot be used to draw cash from ATMs. Heads of department have a card limit of R10Â 000 and ministers R25Â 000.The cards can only be used on overseas trips if special permission is obtained from treasury. “The rules and regulations of credit cards are very much controlled … and the chance of any kind of fraudulent transaction is limited,” said Geo Paul, acting head of the finance department. — Vuyo Sokupa and Haydee Bangerezako