President must dismiss MEC who pays R90 000 per month for rental car to show that he really is serious about cracking down on squandering

11 November 2019

A shining example of the squandering of tax money, i.e. the MEC for Education in KwaZulu Natal who is renting a vehicle for official use at R90 000 per month, goes to show that the statements made by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, about curbing state expenditure and corruption are no more than empty words.

If the President really is serious about combating fraud, corruption and the squandering of tax money, he must immediately take action against the MEC, Kwazi Mshengu, who admitted in the media that he is renting a luxury vehicle for official use at R90 000 per month.

It is shocking that the MEC admits that his predecessor's vehicle has indeed been made available to him, but that it is apparently "unroadworthy", while the supplier says that there is nothing wrong with the car.

According to Mshengu, he was willing to use his own vehicle, but the monthly reimbursement would have amounted to more than R90 000 and, thus, he thought it better to rent a car.

The FF Plus insists that Mshengu must be suspended immediately and that he must be held personally accountable for all the money that was unnecessarily wasted on renting a car.

This is nothing but fraud and the relevant officials who approved the rental and the payment of the vehicle must also be held accountable.

Incidents like these create the impression among officials in the public sector that the squandering and looting of government money is still acceptable under the ANC government and that the President and other ministers' warnings are just empty words.

The heavier the tax burden on the necks of ordinary taxpayers becomes, the greater the resistance will become to the blatant squandering of hard-earned tax money, as is the case here.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 11 November 2019