Madikizela defends R3 000 birthday cake
HUMAN Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela says his dining at the ultra-luxurious One&Only Hotel, where his R3 000 birthday cake was paid for by a contractor doing business with his department, should not raise eyebrows, as it is well within his means because he earns R1.9 million annually.
Madikizela was defending himself against ANC charges that the provincial legislature’s investigation into his sponsored surprise birthday party in March, attended by several property developers, was being deliberately sabotaged by the DA.
Recently the registrar of members’ interests, Romeo Maasdorp, resigned and the chairperson of the legislature’s conduct committee, Lennit Max, was forced to step down when Madikizela sent a letter from his lawyers asking for his recusal.
Max is expected to stand against Madikizela when the DA’s delegates in the Western Cape choose a replacement for Patricia de Lille next month.
Madikizela said Phumla Zantsi, who sponsored his lavish party, had been a personal friend since 1998, before he joined the DA or became Human Settlements MEC.
“She started to work with this (Human Settlements) department way before I became MEC, and therefore she’s been a friend since then.”
When he was taken to the One&Only Hotel on March 11, he said he had been surprised to find that the venue was packed with people he wouldn’t have invited himself.
When the story about his lavish birthday party broke, Premier Helen Zille indicated that she would “do a full investigation of the matter” to which Madikizela promised his co-operation.
“She came to the conclusion that this was nothing more than a smear campaign, designed to tarnish my image towards the DA provincial congress.”
He said the due date for declaring gifts and interest was the end of April and that he had no way of knowing that he had to declare the birthday party, saying traditional events like birthdays were excluded from the threshold of gifts exceeding R1 500.
“I had no way of knowing the price of the cake and who paid for it.”
ANC chief whip Pierre Uys said Madikizela was wrong and had been proved wrong by the legislature’s previous registrar, who ruled that all sponsorships had to be declared. “If I get invited to Newlands and it’s more than R1 500 a year, then I have to declare it.”
Uys said Zille’s initial investigation was to set the tone and bully the DA caucus when her investigation carried no weight and was conducted outside the terms of the code of conduct for members.