Vytjie Mentor's travel: ANC should ask member to repay Transnet
In response to a parliamentary question I asked the Minister of Public Enterprises, it was revealed that Vytjie Mentor, the former chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, received a R155 000 sponsorship to travel to China. Transnet provided the money as the parastatal deemed the former chairperson's inclusion into President Zuma's entourage on his state visit to be an educational experience. This included R133 000 spent on first class tickets to fly to Shanghai and back.
The Democratic Alliance questions the legitimacy of this sponsorship. Transnet is a state-owned enterprise and as such, this sponsorship is an indirect waste of state funds that could have been used more effectively for service delivery elsewhere. The extravagant nature of the trip, including several first class flights and stays in expensive hotels, is unacceptable.
Furthermore, members of Parliament need to be able to hold the executive, including government departments, to account. Considering that Transnet is a parastatal under the remit of the Department of Public Enterprises, the fact that Ms. Mentor accepted a trip from it compromised her ability to perform her primary oversight function. In order to re-establish and indeed maintain parliament's oversight capacity, steps should be taken by the ANC's political leadership to re-establish their members' political integrity and legislative independence.
Even though Ms. Mentor is no longer chairperson of the portfolio committee, her performance and her actions during her tenure are rightly the preserve of the ANC chief whip, whose duty it is to regulate the actions of ANC members of Parliament and to discipline when they have erred. As such, I will write to the Chief Whip of the ANC today requesting that the former chairperson reimburse Transnet for the full amount paid for the trip. Acceptance of such gifts compromises parliamentary integrity and the chief whip should not allow it to stand.
Statement issued by Pieter van Dalen MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, December 7 2010
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