Gengezi Mgidlana, secretary to parliament, appears to believe he is a man in need of blue-light protection, although he is not entitled to it. Mgidlana has raised the ire of parliamentary officials with his high-handed instructions that he and his family be ferried in VIP style.A well-placed parliamentary source said: "He is driven around by protection services, but we are not sure under whose mandate. His children, too ... the guys are forced to transport him and his wife ... He has no authority to do that."He said Mgidlana used an official black Audi A8, which used to belong to presiding officers in the third parliament and was fitted with blue lights.In e-mails seen by the Sunday Times, Mgidlana's office issued a number of orders to protection services head Zelda Holtzman and other senior managers, instructing them to transport him and his wife from their house to Cape Town International Airport. Other instructions included:That he and his wife be transported to parliament at different times of the day, and then to the Cape Town Club in the evening to "the 70th anniversary of the consul general of the Russian federation";That security staff transport him from his house to a "working session" in Hermanus on Friday May 15; andThat his wife be collected from Cape Town International Airport on Friday June 19, and taken home.Only cars belonging to members of the police, municipal police services, traffic officers and military police are allowed the blue-light devices.The police protection unit, which uses blue lights, is responsible for the transportation of the president, deputy president, cabinet ministers and MECs.story_article_right1Thoko Xaso, from Mgidlana's office, recently conveyed his boss's unhappiness about being allocated too many different drivers."Over the past few weeks different drivers have been allocated to transport the secretary. Could you kindly assist in ensuring that one person is allocated for this task," wrote Xaso.Approached this week, Holtzman declined to comment on the use of her staff members.A parliamentary official said Mgidlana's predecessor - the late Mike Coetzee - did not make use of protection services , even while undergoing chemotherapy. Another official said Coetzee's wife used to fetch him after he fell ill and that he never used parliament's protection services.It is not the first time the secretary of parliament has been accused of abusing power.Mgidlana's predecessor, Zingile Dingani, was eventually fired for misconduct related to a salary advance he secured from parliament.Parliament had approved a "salary advance" of R186, 000 to Dingani to build a security wall at his private home.Parliament spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said that according to the legislature's travel policy, if Mgidlana and his wife were travelling to official functions, the secretary to parliament travelled with his spouse in the same car - and where there was a need to co-ordinate separate trips, "such arrangements are made accordingly".He said Mgidlana had asked for neither the installation nor use of blue lights in the Audi he uses for official business "from time to time"...