It has cost South Africans R30-million to give refuge to ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide - about four times as much as the government promised the island nation in January when it was hit by an earthquake.

Answering a DA parliamentary question yesterday, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the minister of international relations and co-operation, said the "expense of providing accommodation, transport, office support staff and security to Mr Aristide is the same as that of supporting a South African Cabinet minister".

DA spokesman Craig Kesson said his party had calculated the R30-million cost to taxpayers of sheltering Aristide on the "expenses of an ordinary Cabinet member", which amount to about R5-million a year, for each of the six years Aristide has spent in South Africa.

In contrast, "the government has pledged about R8-million to victims [of the Haiti earthquake], but has paid only about R5.6-million so far", said Kesson.

Aristide was welcomed to South Africa by former president Thabo Mbeki in May 2004 after a coup by former soldiers who accused Aristide of corruption.

Media reports in January said Aristide was ready to return to Hai-ti to help rebuild his country after the earthquake killed 150000 people and left a million homeless.

Aristide said: "As far as we are concerned, we [are] ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time, to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity."

But Aristide did not leave that day, or the next.

The Times understands that he is living in the upmarket Pretoria suburb of Muckleneuk, and that his daughters Christine, 14, and Michaelle, 12, attend a school in the area.

Both Aristide and his wife, Mildred, have been appointed honorary research fellows at Unisa, in Muckleneuk.