PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has sanctioned that three months of Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s salary be docked for giving an ANC delegation a lift to Zimbabwe.
This after Ramaphosa studied Mapisa-Nqakula’s report, in which she explained her decision to give the officials a lift in a state aircraft.
However, Ramaphosa came under heavy criticism for not making the report public.
In his reprimand of Mapisa-Nqakula, Ramaphosa said her salary should be paid into the Solidarity Fund, which was established to support the country’s response to Covid-19.
In a statement, the Presidency said Ramaphosa directed her to make sure the ANC paid the costs of the flight to Harare and to report to him once that had been done.
The ANC has offered to pay the costs after admitting the manner in which its delegation travelled to Zimbabwe was not properly handled.
“The president said this error of judgment wasn’t in keeping with the responsibilities of a minister,” said the presidency.
“However, the sanction imposed on the minister demonstrated the seriousness with which the president viewed the minister’s error of judgment.
“While the minister was on an official trip for which the president had given permission, and for which she was entitled to use a SAAF aircraft, he found that it was an error of judgment to use the plane to convey a political party delegation.”
The DA described the reprimand as a slap on the wrist and showed that Ramaphosa wasn’t serious about rooting out corruption in his party.
The DA said it wanted Mapisa-Nqakula fired for using state resources to fly the delegation.
DA shadow defence minister Kobus Marais said the president reduced this serious matter to an error of judgment.
“This reprimand doesn’t illustrate how serious President Ramaphosa is about the minister’s dereliction of duty.
“It illustrates how weak he is in holding members of his party and his executive to account.”