Government wasting tax payers money

[alanB]

Minister blows R1.7m on air travel
2011-12-08 18:00
Loyiso Sidimba, City Press

Johannesburg - Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane spent about R1.7m in domestic and international air travel in just 15 months.

Chabane also spent R500 000 to charter two planes in April and October last year.

He revealed his air travel expenses in a parliamentary reply to Democratic Alliance MP Sandy Kalyan.

Chabane’s international travel bill, which included 33 flights, came to over R1.4m.

His domestic bill was R260 000 between April 2010 and July this year for 44 flights.

His former deputy, Dina Pule, now the communications minister, spent over R360 000 on local and international travel between November last year and July this year.

Chabane also took the presidential jet to former president Nelson Mandela’s village, Qunu, in Eastern Cape, in June last year.

He travelled in the presidential jet to Isandlwana in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year.

The DA said ministers’ spending habits show deep disregard for the needs of the millions of South Africans living in poverty.

“Public Service and Administration Minister Roy Padayachie must ensure that the long awaited amendments to the ministerial handbook are presented and implemented as a matter of urgency,” the party said.

Chabane’s spokesperson is yet to respond to City Press’s enquiry.

» Earlier this week, the DA slammed Chabane and Pule for spending almost R550 000 on car hire between March last year and July this year.

- City Press

[Swart Gevaar]

 

Oh man, the more I read, the more I hate...  

[alanB]

Premier pockets thousands in travel claims
2012-02-14 07:47

Johannesburg - Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale prefers to use his own car on official trips, which is costing taxpayers thousands of rands a month, The Star reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper has reportedly seen a document from Mathale's office detailing how he cashed in on travel claims, despite having two state vehicles.

In September 2011, Mathale was paid R446 000, including his R75 000 monthly salary.

Mathale's office has bought two cars during the two years he has been premier. A BMW 750i worth R1m was purchased in April 2009, and a BMW X5 that cost the state R821 000 followed in June 2011.

According to The Star Mathale reportedly prefers using his own vehicle so he can claim travel expenses. His spokesperson Mashadi Mathosa defended Mathale's use of his personal cars.

"The ministerial handbook gives him the prerogative to use his private vehicle and claim," she was quoted as saying.

Limpopo faced a potential shortfall of R2bn at the end of the last financial year. Cabinet put the province under administration last year after it emerged that Limpopo was bankrupt and could not pay civil servants such as teachers and nurses.


- SAPA

[alanB]

Mathale earns millions from rental deals

May 7 2012 at 09:24am
By SAPA

Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale and chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, Thaba Mufamadi, are earning R40 million over eight years for renting one of their buildings to the Gauteng government.

The agreement with Manaka Property Investments, for the rental of Manaka House in Pretoria, was signed by the former health and social development department, Beeld newspaper reported on Monday.

The department had since been split into two, but both divisions still used the building. Manaka had amassed a property empire worth about R520 million. All the company's rental agreements came from government contracts.

Manaka's contracts with Statistics SA, the departments of water affairs and foreign affairs were signed without correct tender procedures being followed, it was reported.

Gauteng social development department spokesman Sello Mokoena confirmed the department paid a monthly rental of R468 645 (R5.6 million annually) to Manaka. With an annual rental increase of 10 percent between July 2009 and December 2016, R42 million would be paid to them.

Since the government contracts were signed, Mathale resigned as a director of Manaka, but was still a shareholder. Mufamadi, who was still a director, said he had no say in the operational running of the company.

David Lewis, head of Consumer Watch, said the situation amounted to a serious conflict of interest.

“The first question concerns the impression created when a commercial property company in which a provincial premier and the head of a parliamentary committee have interests, are found to be doing large scale commercial business with the state,” he told Beeld. – Sapa

[alanB]

Public sector wage bill slammed

May 7 2012 at 05:00am
By Ethel Hazelhurst
Independent Newspapers


Mike Schussler, the chief economist at Economists.co.za, speaks during the Uasa unemployment report presentation. He says the average government employee earns 34 percent more than those working in the private sector. Photo: Leon Nicholas.
South Africans are twice as likely to be employed in the public sector today than they were 40 years ago, according to Mike Schussler, the chief economist at Economists.co.za. And the salaries of the nearly 23 percent of formal sector workers employed in the public sector are much higher than those in private businesses.

Presenting trade union Uasa’s 2012 employment report in Johannesburg on Friday, Schussler said the average government salary last year was 34 percent higher than salaries in the private sector, while employees at state-owned enterprises earned about 43 percent more.

“Government salaries account for more than 12.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and, together with the salaries paid by state-owned enterprises, they add up to over 14.3 percent of GDP.” He said this percentage was among the highest in the world. “Some countries with similar figures, (such as) Portugal, Greece and France, are facing debt-payment crises today.”

While public sector employment had doubled as a percentage of the total, the “productive sector has struggled for decades to create jobs”, Schussler said. As a result, fewer people were employed in manufacturing in the second quarter of last year than at any time since 1972.

The reason the private sector found it difficult to create jobs was that the cost of producing goods and services had risen too quickly, with wages of unskilled workers rocketing “about twice as quickly as in the rich world, while management and specialised skills are often underpaid”.

Schussler argued that industrial policy interventions, nationalisation or state intervention in mining “will never help the unskilled as they are simply too expensive and the lack of specialised training is locking the unemployed out of the labour market”.

He disputed the common perception of an inappropriate wage gap between high- and low-income earners.

“The old ‘working poor’ have become the reasonably comfortable class of today,” he said. And, he pointed out, if the working-class poor had remained a problem, then unions would have been “a dismal failure” over the past two decades.

To support his contention that the wage gap is overstated, he cited research based on the Patterson and Hay grading systems used to evaluate workers, which showed wages in the unskilled and semi-skilled part of the labour force were too high. And he suggested it was no coincidence that it was those types of workers who found it difficult to get work.

He argued that the biggest wage disparity was not among the employed but between the employed and the unemployed.

While the top 10 percent of earners earn about 5.7 times the wage of the lowest-paid workers, the income of those at the bottom of the earnings scale is about 19 times higher than the child grant.

And, he pointed out, more people get an income from welfare than from employment.

Schussler said, from a commercial perspective, unskilled employees were overpaid in both relative and absolute terms. “Commercial ventures need to produce goods at a profit to survive and they have now mechanised as much as they can.” This would partly explain the unemployment rate, which hovers at 25 percent.

In the report, Uasa said a starting wage subsidy could make a difference to the unemployment rate.

[alanB]

‘It’s a staggering sum of money’

June 13 2012 at 10:30pm
Comment on this story

Independent Newspapers
(File image) South African President Jacob Zuma (left) and his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe. Photo: Leon Nicholas
Cape Town - Flying President Jacob Zuma and his deputy to their various engagements since they assumed office has cost taxpayers more than R210-million, former defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu has revealed.

In written responses to two Parliamentary questions, tabled on Wednesday, she said Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe had used a total of 499 South African Air Force flights.

These included aircraft operated by the SAAF's 21 (VIP) Squadron and its reserve squadron, as well as flights chartered by the SAAF.

Of the 499 flights, Zuma used 286, at a total cost of R140,515,430; Motlanthe used 213, at a total cost of R69,746,680..

Sisulu, who on Tuesday was shifted by Zuma from defence to take over as public service and administration minister, said the figures were for the period from and including the 2009/10 financial year, up to mid-May this year.

According to her replies, a total of 53 of the 499 flights were chartered for the two men by the SAAF.

The Democratic Alliance said the figures contained in Sisulu's replies, and in her written replies to other questions dealing with VIP flights, also tabled on Wednesday, were “staggering”.

They further revealed that former president Thabo Mbeki had undertaken 39 flights, at a cost of R32,130,037, DA defence spokesperson David Maynier said in a statement.

“However, most shocking of all was that the minister (Sisulu) herself undertook 268 flights at a cost of R40,581,878.”

Of these 268 flights, 188 were on aircraft operated by the SAAF. A total of 79 flights were on aircraft operated by the SAAF reserve squadron, and one flight was chartered.

“The minister apparently regularly made use of a luxury Gulfstream executive jet operated by the SAAF reserve squadron. She blew an average of R151,424 on each flight, most of which must have been domestic flights.”

Maynier said Sisulu “seems to have completely abused her privilege to use military aircraft for official purposes”.

It was entirely possible that the figures provided did not reflect the total cost of providing VIP flights.

“I will, therefore, be submitting follow-up questions to the newly-appointed Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, probing what aircraft were used and what the breakdown of expenditure was for each of the flights undertaken by President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and the minister.

“We have to get to the bottom of what is really going on in the VIP transport section of the SAAF,” Maynier said. - Sapa

[alanB]

R6m stolen, bank accounts ruled frozen
November 1 2012 at 11:03am
By ZELDA VENTER
Comment on this story
 
 
.
Pretoria - The Moses Kotane Local Municipality in Mogwase in the North West has turned to the Pretoria High Court in an urgent bid to have 15 bank accounts in the name of individuals and businesses frozen. This comes after more than R6 million was unlawfully drawn from the council’s bank account and deposited into their accounts.
After making the shocking discovery early last month, the municipality obtained an interim order freezing the accounts held with the four major banks in the country.
The banks were given until this week to give reasons why the accounts should not be frozen.
Judge Vivian Tlhapi on Wednesday confirmed the interim order, freezing the accounts.
She ordered that it remain in place pending finalisation of any actions by the municipality to recover the money.
The municipality’s Stephanus Piek said in court papers that certain employees were allowed access to the bank account.
The system had, however, been designed so that it was impossible for one person to capture and approve a specific transaction.
One person would capture it and another would approve it.
Those granted access to the municipality’s bank account were given passwords.
On October 1, a reconciliation of the municipality’s most recent transactions was carried out by its credit manager. It was discovered that R180 000 had been withdrawn from the bank account for no reason and transferred into another account, identified as KK Trading.
The credit manager referred the matter to another official, who immediately suspected foul play.

The municipality’s most recent bank statements were called up and it was found more than R6m had been withdrawn from its account over that weekend.
The statement reflected 15 accounts into which money had been paid. Criminal proceedings were immediately opened.

Piek said the municipality had no control over the accounts of the account holders into which the money was paid. There was also a risk that any of the account holders could have withdrawn the money if the accounts were not suspended. If that happened, not only the municipality, but also ratepayers, would suffer severe prejudice, he said.
Pretoria News

[alanB]

Officials live it up on the gravy train
November 5 2012 at 12:10pm
By MOLOKO MOLOTO
Comment on this story
 
 
INLSA
Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane has said the total amount spent by all five national departments was R23m. File photo by Paballo Thekiso
Johannesburg - A whopping R12 million has been spent on hotels and travel expenses for the national intervention team in Limpopo.

The government spent this amount between December last year and September, on fewer than 30 officials, since five provincial departments were placed under national administration last year.

Separately, R11m has been paid to a consultancy firm to fix the province’s “corrupt” payment system. But the Treasury says intervention benefits override costs incurred. The intervention officials stay in luxury hotels. Their regular travel expenses between Gauteng and Limpopo are paid for by the government. The head of the team, Monde Tom, is under 24-hour police guard.

All costs exclude salaries for the officials. In the Treasury’s case, all the officials involved in the intervention full-time are employees of the Treasury in Pretoria. However, the Treasury pays Tom’s salary, even though he is not an employee.
Each of the five national departments - Treasury, Health, Public Works, Transport and Basic Education - bears its own costs.

Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane has said the total amount spent by all five national departments was R23m. However, he pointed out that almost half was paid to the consultancy firm.

“Of the remaining amount, the bulk is accounted for by accommodation and travel expenses,” said Sikhakhane. He said that of the R12m total, the Treasury had paid just over R1m specifically for accommodation and travel expenses. The remaining R10m came from the other four national departments.
But Sikhakhane mentioned that Limpopo’s financial bleeding had been stopped and that finances had been stabilised.

The cabinet invoked section (100) (b) of the constitution after the province requested a R1 billion overdraft to pay the salaries of public servants, including nurses and doctors.

“Limpopo now has cash resources of R2.5bn versus an overdraft of R800m when the intervention began,” said Sikhakhane.

He said all legitimate claims had been paid.

Sikhakhane said the rot in the province’s payment system was the root cause of its financial woes.

The payment system relates to money transfers made by the provincial treasury to other government departments, entities and service providers. The system is also linked to the provincial revenue fund.

Sikhakhane said: “In Limpopo’s case, the provincial treasury had been so emaciated that it had become ineffective, and the provincial revenue fund had not published audited annual statements for three years.”

“The data relating to supplies of goods and services was so corrupt that the intervention team could not tell from the available information which suppliers had legitimately won the contracts.”
moloko.moloto@inl.co.za

[alanB]

Ok I'm running out of time - there is ahell of lot more and that was only after a few months of scanning the news.

And I suspect the reports are just scratching the surface!

[alanB]

The politics of effective pilfering

December 4 2013 at 09:57am

Comment on this story
IOL pn kunene

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Patriotic Alliance president Gayton McKenzie and secretary-general Kenny Kunene during the partys launch in Paarl. Photo: Ian Landsberg

If I were a criminal in South Africa, I would see politics as a new way of doing business, says Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.

Pretoria - Gangland legend has it that when the FBI asked America’s most-prolific bank robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, he replied: “That’s where the money is.”

News that the Patriotic Alliance, a new party made up of former gangsters, a bank robber and a fraudster has been launched reminded me of Sutton’s memorable retort.

If you are looking at ways of enriching yourself quickly and easily, you have to fish where the fish are. In our country, that place is the public purse.

It is not the first time we have seen gangsters look to politics as an area of interest.

A few years ago, the northern Pretoria regional conference of the ANC was brought into disarray when two groups claiming to be the legitimate structure held separate conferences and each elected leaders.

Among those who claimed they were the legitimate ANC structure were men who had been arrested for a few heists and were themselves friends and relatives of some of the most-wanted men in the country.

For the record, I acknowledge that some of the leaders of the Patriotic Alliance have served their time and I do not have any basis to suggest they are still criminals.

I also do not wish to imply that anyone with a criminal past has nothing to contribute to the country and its politics. My Catholic upbringing taught me that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

But I do imagine that if I were a criminal in South Africa, I would see politics as a new way of doing business.

The business model is perfect. Sticking with Sutton’s theory, politics is where the money is. Big money.

The auditor-general’s last report told us that as much as R32 billion of state money was lost, misspent or not properly accounted for. Surely some of it was stolen. What is more, Minister of Public Service and Administration Lindiwe Sisulu admitted there had not been a single conviction of anyone guilty of flouting the Public Finance Management Act.

Now imagine what all this means to an intrepid criminal.

Thirty-two thousand million of rands available to steal if you play your cards right. And, as Sisulu has said, the chances of being caught are close to nil.

In the unlikely event you are caught, you can always accuse those who catch you of being racists (if white), ultra leftists (if black), or “pushing an agenda”, without needing to explain what that agenda is or why it should not be pushed.

If all that fails, you make an apology “to those who might have been let down” and continue with your life as before.

Unlike in your previous occupation, where Sutton said a gun was necessary because “you can’t rob a bank on charm and personality”, a criminal-turned-politician will no longer need a gun to pull a heist or spill blood.

Yes, a few people might die as a result of your actions or omissions, but the link will always be too tenuous to make you lose any sleep.

Instead of arranging for the best driver for your gang, you can get anyone with a licence to drive you as fast as they want provided they have a flashing blue light.

Another beneficial factor for a South African politician is that the issues are so clear-cut.

You merely have to show your unhappiness at the levels of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

When speaking to black people, warn them about the boers returning to take away their grant money, and when with whites, thank them for contributing to making the new South Africa what it is and spew something about Nelson Mandela’s opposition to white or black domination.

Around this time of the year, you rock up at a public meeting and mouth platitudes about the evil of hurting women and children. You can urge young people to stay in school and warn them about the futility of crime and how it might affect foreign direct investment.

In a phrase, perfect the art of talking about meat to butchers, bread to bakers and pies to both.

If you get your name in newspapers enough times and become part of the ruling party’s leadership, you could even be invited to be a shareholder in a huge company where you will earn millions of rands in exchange for having your name on the list of directors.

For this money, you do not need to threaten to separate the body and soul of anyone and merely have to make a call or two in case there are procedural or legal bottlenecks that might affect your new company’s project of making super profits.

The latest developments in the body politic suggest to me that the criminals are at last reclaiming their business from the politicians.

A patriotic citizenry should reclaim their country from both.

* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is executive editor of Pretoria News.

[alanB]

Road to Nkandla cost taxpayers R290m

December 4 2013 at 09:38am
By LEBOGANG SEALE

Comment on this story
Copy of nm nkandla to kranskop2.JPG (38453602)

THE STAR

The road leading to President Jacob Zumas homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. The road, which was built by the KwaZulu-Natal government, cost R290 million. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

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Johannesburg - A 32km-long stretch of single-lane road linking President Jacob Zuma’s hometown of Nkandla and the neighbouring town of Kranskop cost taxpayers a whopping R290 million.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters revealed this on Tuesday in a written reply to a parliamentary question from the IFP.

She said the P5 road, which passes through Zuma’s private home, was built by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.

“The national Department of Transport did not spend any funds for the construction of this road. The provincial Department of Transport spent about R290m for the construction of the specified (Nkandla to Kranskop) road,” Peters said.

This comes as concerns mount over the delays in the implementation of the much-hyped Moloto Rail Corridor, following a bus accident in Kwaggafontein that left 30 people dead last month.

The project, announced by Zuma three years ago, is to link Pretoria, Mpumalanga and Sekhukhune in Limpopo.

The Star’s sister newspaper, The Mercury, reported last year that Nkandla had substantially benefited from R582m in taxpayers’ money for the construction of two tarred roads.

The paper reported that the sprawling village of KwaNxamalala had been given two new road networks. The other road - a 53km stretch linking Nkandla to Eshowe - cost R292m to build.

The network forms parts of a project dubbed the Tale of Four Cities as it also links Ulundi, Empangeni/Richards Bay, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

The official launch ceremony was held just a stone’s throw from Zuma’s private residence in October last year.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu had also opened two pedestrian bridges across the iNsuze and Mposa rivers, linking other villages to schools which are in the greater KwaMxamalala area, at a cost of R4.5m.

The unveiling ceremony was held amid a public outcry over the government’s R206m upgrade at Zuma’s private home.

At the time of the launch, DA MPL and the party’s transport spokesman, Radley Keys, had questioned why Nkandla seemed to be getting a lot of preferential attention.

“There are vast areas of the country that do not even have gravel roads. I said clearly there is an agenda here and it could be that it is because Nkandla is home to the president,” Keys said.

The provincial government has repeatedly denied that the roads construction had anything to do with the security upgrade at Nkandla, which was being undertaken by the national Department of Public Works.

lebogang.seale@inl.co.za

[alanB]

No punishment for president or Cabinet

December 3 2013 at 11:30am
By Marianne Merten

Comment on this story
IOL motlanthe june 25

Independent Newspapers

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe File photo: Tracey Adams

Cape Town -

There is no punishment for a president, cabinet member or deputy minister who is found to have transgressed the executive ethics code, which is meant to govern good conduct in public executive office.

The review aimed at fixing this continues.

But in a parliamentary reply on Monday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said that in May the cabinet had decided that “in the interim... members of the executive, who violate the executive members’ ethics code face similar sanctions as those faced by members of Parliament”.

The review was expected to be completed by September, but it was delayed due to “continuing consultations with stakeholders”, said Motlanthe.

Parliamentarians can be docked up to a month’s salary as a fine, face a ban from Parliament for up to 15 days and also receive a written or public verbal reprimand in the House.

The executive ethics code was gazetted in July 2000 and is applicable to both national and provincial executives.

Like that of Parliament, it sets out annual disclosures of financial interests, including directorships and properties, and requires the declaration of gifts over a certain value.

Unlike Parliament’s code, the executive code has no sanctions.

As ministers and their deputies are also MPs, they fall under both executive and parliamentary ethics codes. But as the president resigns his seat in Parliament after being elected as head of state, the parliamentary ethics code does not apply to him.

Questions over how and who should take action if the public protector found that the president had transgressed the executive ethics code arose in October.

It emerged there was no clarity whether the government had taken steps to correct this, as called for in an April 2010 public protector report which had found that President Jacob Zuma failed to declare his financial interests within the stipulated 60 days of taking office.

Cope MP Julie Kilian, who asked the parliamentary questions of Motlanthe, on Monday said “the fact that they are dragging their feet, shows they are not serious”. Amending the executive ethics code would make sense. “It would indicate the government was serious about fighting corruption,” she added.

In the wake of the public protector’s report, speculation is continuing over how much Zuma knew of the R208 million taxpayer-funded security upgrades at his Nkandla home.

Now the public protector is due to release reports into various ministerial missteps: Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson is said to have transgressed on a patrol vessel tender, while former communications minister Dina Pule is facing a reprimand over her conflicts of interest.

Pule, sacked in the most recent Cabinet reshuffle, is still an MP.

Political Bureau

[alanB]

We had to publish Nkandla report - M&G

November 29 2013 at 02:00pm
By Sapa

Comment on this story
Copy of Copy of Copy of cz Nkandla 2012 .JPG

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

President Jacob Zuma's homestead at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

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Johannesburg - In an editorial, the Mail & Guardian said it had expected fullsome criticism for its decision to run Public Protector Thuli Madonsela Public’s report into President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead but did so nonetheless because it believed there was a risk government would resort to further court action to stop Madonsela's final report into “Nkandlagate” from seeing the light.

Its two-page article cited Madonsela recommending in the provisional report that Zuma be called to account for failing to safeguard state resources and for misleading Parliament.

The president has repeatedly told the legislature that he and his family had paid for all work at Nkandla that was not related to security improvements at the estate.

Government has likewise insisted that the upgrades were essential for Zuma's security, but Madonsela found a swimming pool, visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives included in the upgrade at “enormous cost” to the taxpayer.

Madonsela's report recommended that he must repay a “reasonable” amount of the money spent to the state, the Mail & Guardian said.

One of the key allegations listed in the report stated that costs escalated from an initial R27 million to R215m, with a further R31m in works outstanding.

The newspaper said documents dating from three years ago complained about the rising cost of the project, but it continued to escalate after Zuma's private architect was imposed as a “principal agent” on the project by the president.

It quoted Madonsela as finding in her report that this amounted to “political interference” by the president.

The newspaper said its report was based not only on Madonsela's provisional report but also on more than 12 000 pages of documents it forced the public works department to release using access-to-information legislation.

Madonsela has been locked in a tense standoff with ministers of Cabinet's security cluster, who insist there is a danger her findings will result in security arrangements becoming public and compromise the president's security.

The Mail & Guardian recalled that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had stated that Madonsela was not qualified to decide whether the information she brought to light might constitute a security breach, and would exceed her powers if she sought to do so.

At a briefing last week, Mthethwa and his fellow ministers in the security cluster had left open the door for further litigation against Madonsela and also reiterated that she should hand her final report to Parliament.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said if Madonsela's final report matched what had been reported, her party would table a motion asking Parliament to investigate the president.

“As more and more details surrounding Nkandlagate emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Zuma is at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa. He must be accordingly held accountable by Parliament for his actions.”

But United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said Zuma had misled Parliament and the public, and it was not useful for Madonsela's final report to be handed to the legislature.

Holomisa said police had to conduct a parallel investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at Nkandla.

“One thing is clear; President Zuma has misled Parliament and the nation. Unfortunately this person is not accountable to the electorate, but to Luthuli House, and the African National Congress must take responsibility for the actions of their deployee.

“For us to take this matter to Parliament is not going to work and we, instead, must send the police, the Hawks and the auditors to get to the bottom of this mess,” he said.

Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said it backed Madonsela's reported recommendation that Zuma be made to repay money spent at Nkandla.

“The Congress of the People welcomes and supports to the hilt the Public Protector's directive that President Jacob Zuma pay back public funds which was spend on his private retreat at Nkandla,” he said.

Sapa

[Veldbrand]

Jeepers!! Stop now AlanWikileaksB, you're doing my hate-o-meter no good brother!!!

[alanB]

No point in going into denial about this stuff!

People are asking "whats wrong with etolls", well read this stuff and you decide!

Its in the press EVERY BLOODY DAY, but most people dont want to hear it!

So when they piss more of your money away tomorrow, whose fault is that really?

[RobC]

Jeepers!! Stop now AlanWikileaksB, you're doing my hate-o-meter no good brother!!!

[Laban]

"the African National Congress must take responsibility for the actions of their deployee."....

[J-dog]

sickening.

the money tree is huge - fuel levies, import taxes, VAT, personal income tax, company taxes, rates, carbon tax, TV licences, vehicle tax....

(I don't think the average person thinks about all the crippling taxes one is subjected to)

BUT...

The tree is quickly being stripped bare by swarms of locusts with total impunity.

assholes. morons. gluttonous pigs. buffoons. stinking turds.

 

[IceCreamMan]

so what are we doing about it ...I mean apart from saying how awful it is an how cross we all are! I could be wrong but I don't think bitching is going to change things

fact is ,voting time next year we will prolly make it into a long weekend and go away and not vote, or not be around or the queues are too long or go for a ride along the canals...

action is needed ppl ,the very least of which is to make the effort to vote!!!

But do something , apart from bitching about it I mean....

[Bundu]

Part 2 of the What Sanral Don't Want You To Know About E Tolling...

a look into what is coming if the existing e-tolls succeed

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/duM11XvTt7w" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/duM11XvTt7w</a>