ANC promises payback for trip
MISUSED: PARTIES WANT PARTY TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
President must stick to his vow to act on corruption after Zimbabwe visit.
Opposition parties are adamant President Cyril Ramaphosa and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula must still account for the ANC’s use of state resources, despite the party agreeing to pay back the money.
They said Ramaphosa was acting contrary to his own undertaking to “rule the line in the sand” against corruption. The abuse of state resources for private ANC purposes was unacceptable.
Yesterday the ANC agreed to pay back the costs incurred by the state for the party’s irregular trip to Zimbabwe last week when it used an SA Air Force aircraft.
It called its mission there a “success” but admitted the contingent had travelled “in an unusual manner and [we] profusely humble ourselves where we went wrong during the lockdown”.
ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule did not state how and when the reimbursement would happen.
The delegation, led by Magashule, went to meet Zimbabwe’s governing Zanu-PF party. They discussed the political crisis in the country and planned to meet other stakeholders and parties in the future.
Ramaphosa is yet to respond to the report he requested from Mapisa-Nqakula about the trip.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) were yesterday adamant that Ramaphosa and Mapisa-Nqakula must still account for the trip.
According to FF+ leader Pieter
Groenewald, by saying it would pay back the money, the ANC had admitted wrongdoing.
He said his party wanted Mapisa-Nqakula to supply a clear analysis of the costs and who had paid for them. Groenewald questioned whether they had obtained permission from Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to undertake a cross-border visit in terms of the lockdown regulations.
“If the minister gave permission, on what basis did he allow [them] to leave the country?”
DA shadow minister for defence Kobus Marais said the ANC “never thought they would be caught with their hands in the cookie jar”.
“If President Ramaphosa wants to be taken seriously, he must do what he promised to do – he must act on corruption.”
Ace did not say when the money would be paid back