‘I didn’t go on holiday to Zim, I went to sort out border security’

Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says she did not go to Zimbabwe “on holiday”, but to discuss “issues of instability” in the country that are negatively impacting SA’s security. 

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, she dismissed suggestions by DA MP Alf Lees that she was no longer fit to hold office after she gave an ANC delegation a lift to Zimbabwe in an SA National Defence Force jet last month.

Lees fired the salvo at Mapisa-Nqakula during a meeting of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), which was convened to discuss the handling of the controversial Beit Bridge border fence with public works minister Patricia de Lille.

Lees attacked Mapisa-Nqakula after she revealed that members of the SANDF were facilitating the illegal movement of Zimbabweans into and out of SA at Beit Bridge for shopping and chronic medication collection at SA clinics.

The MP said this and the minister’s controversial trip to Harare with ANC leaders were proof she was no longer suitable to serve in the position.

But a fuming Mapisa-Nqakula accused Lees of being personal, saying she was prepared to present a full report on a her trip to Zimbabwe before Scopa or any other relevant parliamentary committee.

The embattled minister is due to appear before the national assembly’s defence portfolio committee on October 16 to account from the trip that cost taxpayers R232,000.

It has seen Mapisa-Nqakula reprimanded by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also docked her three months’ salary, a sanction described as a slap on the wrist by those who want her fired.

She told Scopa she did not go to Zimbabwe on holiday, adding that she was awaiting the opportunity to answer this question, “be it from parliament or even the public protector, because the public protector is investigating this matter”.

“So for honourable Lees to then come to the conclusion about my fitness to hold office and everything ... I just feel the honourable member has a right to a view, but perhaps at this point in time I don’t think it was necessary for him to be personal in the manner in which he has done.

“At the end of the day, chairperson, when I present the facts on Zimbabwe, you will know and understand that I did not go to Zimbabwe to visit the Victoria Falls. I went to Zimbabwe precisely because of some of the issues which we have now identified here, but we’re saying that discussion will be for another day. Issues of instability in Zimbabwe are impacting negatively on the state of national security of the RSA.”

But Lees insisted she was unsuitable to hold a ministerial position.

I am absolutely astounded that this is the reaction from the minister. It probably should not surprise me, given the behaviour of this minister with regard to taking her ANC colleagues on a jaunt at taxpayers expense in a jet to Zimbabwe ...

—  DA MP Alf Lees

“Mr chairman, the obfuscation by the minister of defence is very serious. Instead of doing the job that she’s supposed to do and ensure her members do, she’s allowing her members to break the law. That is the bottom line,” said Lees.

“I am absolutely astounded that this is the reaction from the minister. It probably should not surprise me, given the behaviour of this minister with regard to taking her ANC colleagues on a jaunt at taxpayers expense in a jet to Zimbabwe ... it’s an indication of the unsuitability of this minister to hold this position and I would request that we include [in our report] committee recommendations in relation to this aspect.”

Mapisa-Nqakula said some time ago the military considered erecting an electric fence along the border between Zimbabwe and SA, but she did not support the move because “this is not apartheid SA”.

She said she had posed questions to the SANDF about “people crossing the border and coming into SA to buy food, while accompanied by members of the military”.

“I was told they literally arrange transport to take them to the border and arrange for them to cross back to Zimbabwe.

“I am assuming they buy in the area and then get them into cars and send them back. When we were discussing it with the military command council I was  annoyed because I had seen this on social media, so all I needed was clarity. Are you escorting people who are crossing the river? And that’s the clarity I received.”

But Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the public finance watchdog would schedule another meeting with the SANDF to discuss the financial implications of its operations along the Beit Bridge border.

Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head advocate Andy Mothibi said it had instituted proceedings to freeze the bank account of the service provider who was paid R37m to erect the fence along the Beit Bridge border that turned out to be “not fit for purpose”.

The civil litigation is due to be heard by a special tribunal on Thursday, with the aim of recovering monies spent on the porous border.