Muthambi digs in on claims of wastage
Minister defends flying relatives, friends to Cape Town
Under-fire Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi on Tuesday denied allegations that she had wasted taxpayers money to fly her friends and relatives to Cape Town.
Under-fire Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi denied on Tuesday that she had bunked a portfolio committee meeting and that she had wasted taxpayers’ money to fly her friends and relatives to Cape Town.
She appeared in the National Council of Provinces to answer questions as part of the governance cluster.
In August, the public service and administration portfolio committee, which was then chaired by ANC MP Makhosi Khoza, said it would issue a summons to compel her to appear in Parliament.
This was after she had missed a meeting meant to deal with allegations that she had spent more than R300,000 of taxpayers’ money to fly her relatives and friends to Cape Town to watch her budget speech in the National Assembly in May.
The outspoken Khoza has since been reassigned to another committee and it has emerged that the summonses have not yet been issued.
House chairman Cedric Frolick reportedly said that Par- liament had not moved to sanction Muthambi because the committee had not followed “the necessary procedures” before requesting the minister to attend the meeting.
Frolick said her appearance was not officially on the committee’s programme. Muthambi is expected to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
“I want to dismiss allegations [that I refuse to appear before the committee] with [the] contempt they deserve … have never abdicated my responsibility of coming to Parliament to account. I have been a member of Parliament and I understand the importance of coming to account,” Muthambi said.
On allegations that she had wasted taxpayers’ money to fly friends and family to Cape Town for her budget vote speech, Muthambi said the ministerial handbook allowed ministers up to 30 “privileged tickets” for guests to attend budget vote speeches in Parliament.
EFF MPs also asked her about allegations that she had hired at least 27 people‚ some of them close friends or family‚ to her support staff without following proper procedure or conducting interviews.
Muthambi said there was nothing illegal about hiring support staff without conducting interviews. “You have never seen a position being advertised for support staff,” she said.
In August, her department issued a statement to rubbish the reports that she had hired friends and relatives.
The DA is also pushing for Parliament to lay criminal charges against Muthambi and others who have been found to have misled, or lied, to the ad hoc committee that investigated the crisis at the SABC.
Lying to Parliament is a criminal offence that can attract a prison sentence or a hefty fine.
Earlier, Co-operative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen dodged questions on the leaked e-mails scandal, which implicates him and other Cabinet members including Muthambi in state-capture claims. He said he was not willing to respond to questions that were related to the broader legal review of the State of Capture report.
Both President Jacob Zuma and Van Rooyen are referred to in a public protector report on state capture involving the Gupta business family.