Zimbabwe lift saga: rules must apply to all

I AM waiting with bated breath to see and hear what will happen to Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula after her lift saga a fortnight ago.

The minister, according to media reports, went to Zimbabwe on official government duty in a military aircraft and gave an ANC delegation a lift.

The delegation, which included ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, Tony Yengeni, ANC NEC member Nomvula Mokonyane, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu and ANC communications officer Dakota Legwete, went to Zimbabwe for a different matter – a party-to-party bilateral meeting with members of the governing Zanu-PF. After a noise was made by the opposition parties who accused the government of abusing state resources and taxpayers’ money by transporting party members to Harare for free, President Cyril Ramaphosa demanded a written explanation from the errant minister as to why she gave ordinary citizens and party members not employed by the state a lift.

In 1999, when I was deputy director: communications in the Gauteng provincial government’s Safety and Security Department, I found myself in a similar situation to Mapisa-Nqakula.

My partner, with whom I was staying, had fallen ill in the early hours of the morning.

At sunrise I drove her, in a government vehicle I had been issued with, to a local doctor.

On our way back we were stopped by government garage inspectors who requested our IDs and a letter that authorised passengers in the vehicle.

My attempts to explain that while my partner was an unauthorised passenger, this was an emergency, she was sick and we were returning from a doctor – fell on deaf ears. Even the doctor’s sick note could not help us. We were relieved of the vehicle and left stranded on the side of the road.

Next, I was hauled before a departmental disciplinary hearing and handed a final, serious written warning.

I was made to understand that government vehicles were not for personal use – should not be seen at malls, shebeens, churches or parties, among other places.

Many years later I saw a neighbour who works for a government department using a state vehicle to teach his children to drive.

Another government employee, who also runs a spaza shop in his yard, uses a government vehicle to stock his wares at a city wholesaler.

Many stories are told about how government vehicles – now planes – are abused with no consequences to the culprits.

I wait to see what will happen to the honourable minister.