Defence minister's taxi service
Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has again been accused of improper use of government transport - this time a state vehicle to ferry a woman to the University of Cape Town.
Mapisa-Nqakula was asked questions in parliament by the DA's defence spokesman Sarel Marais about the improper use of a vehicle registered in her ministry's name at the Youngsfield Army base.
This luxury car, a Mercedes- Benz, was used to transport the daughter of a major to UCT and back. The minister said, in her reply, that the "transportation was not on a daily basis and no budget was allocated".
Minister briefs Zuma on DRC flight Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has briefed President Jacob Zuma on the circumstances surrounding her transportation of a Burundian woman to South Africa in January 2014.
Marais said: "Those vehicles are for official purposes. I think [ministers] earn more than enough money to transport adult children or dependants at their own cost."
The Sunday Times reported earlier that Mapisa-Nqakula smuggled her son's Burundian girlfriend, Michelle Wege, into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The minister reportedly said: "I'd do it again if I had to."
The DA is set to drag the minister before parliament's ethics committee for allegedly using fake documents to get Wege into South Africa.