President Zuma jetted to New York in his private jet yesterday. He is expected to address the general assembly at the 66th United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. What I find astounding about this trip is that he has taken TWO of his wives with him – at taxpayers’ expense.
Yesterday City Press reported that Zuma would be accompanied by his wife
Thobeka Madiba and his fiance, Bongi Ngema-Zuma, who qualifies as an official spouse.
Not surprisingly, Presidency spokesman Bongani Majola refused to comment, saying the SANDF handled the President’s flight schedule and the flights fell within their budget. City Press reported that Ngema had accompanied the president on several international trips and sources close to the situation say Madiba “organised her own thing” in order to visit the Big Apple. The paper reports that there is animosity among the president’s first wives over international trips.
With all this extravagance, a presidential report released recently reveals no surprises. Zuma had overspent the travel budget allocated to him and his three wives and children by 33 percent. The Presidency spent R89.5-million on support for Zuma compared with the allocated R66.8-million.
On Saturday we read in the Daily Dispatch of International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane’s refusal to put her handbag through an airport X-ray scanner in Oslo, Norway, resulted in her missing a commercial flight to Bulgaria where she was due to attend a meeting. As a result she ended up hiring a private jet at a cost of R235 343.
DA Spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko said that over the past two years President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet had spent more than R3.8billion financing lavish lifestyles and stroking the egos of its members with self-congratulatory advertising, property renovations, luxury vehicles and VIP tickets to sporting events.
Can South Africa really afford all of this extravagance? I think not.
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