Furious Mbalula tells parliament he used his own money for Mayweather fight

Minister of Sport, Fikile Mbalula has told parliament that he did not use public funds to attend Floyd Mayweather's boxing fight against Manny Pacquiao earlier this month.

Appearing in parliament, Mbalula affirmed he had used his own cash to fly off to the US. His claim has been backed by the sterling record his department has - the auditor general issued a clean audit to the department of sports.

Under Mbalula's watch, the department also received a stamp of approval from the public protector after the DA asked Thuli Madonsela to investigate possible wasteful expenditure.

Mbalula responded to Beeld editor, Adriaan Basson's question about him using taxes to see Mayweather when he came back from the trip. A furious Mbalula challenged Basson to produce evidence of corruption. Basson has yet to reveal if he has indeed found evidence to support his claims.

According to News 24, Mbalula said in parliament: "You’re fighting with me when I used my own money to go watch a fight. I did not use [the department of] sport’s money."

Of his clean audit he said: “It is the highest achievement for a department. We got [the clean audit] through hard work and by managing our money without irregular expenditure, fruitless expenses and corruption. So don’t judge me when I go see Mayweather with my own money."

The Auditor General gave us a CLEAN AUDIT, an Unqualified report for 2013/14. We use public money efficiently and account for every cent.

— RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) May 21, 2015

Two Chapter 9 Institutions -Public Protector and Auditor General attest that we use Public Funds effectively with no wasteful expenditure.

— RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) May 21, 2015

How much of the taxpayers money did I use to go and watch the fight in LasVegas? @adriaanbasson am still waiting #somebodyPLEASEhelphim

— RSA Min of Sport (@MbalulaFikile) May 21, 2015