Phumzile: ANC quashes AG probe

2006-02-01 11:16

Cape Town - The ANC has quashed a resolution put to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts calling for the Auditor General to investigate the recent holiday jaunt to the United Arab Emirates by deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

ANC MP and leader of the ruling party's caucus on the key fiscal watchdog body, Vincent Smith, said his party "won't accept" the proposal by the official opposition DA.

He said the Auditor General Shauket Fakie would in any event investigate directives regarding the trip - a holiday trip in December which the DA said cost taxpayers' at least R700 000 - "in the normal course" of his auditing of departments, in this case the presidency. The DA had wanted the AG to report to the committee within three weeks on whether there was fruitless or wasteful expenditure.

The resolution was motivated on Wednesday by DA MP Eddie Trent who noted that there had been a raging debate in the media in recent weeks about the deputy president's trip. He asked for an investigation by Fakie in terms of the Public Finance Management Act.

ANC MPs pointed to the need for security of the deputy president whether she was on holiday or on official duty.

Security of utmost importance

While the debate is continuing in the committee, it looks set to be defeated by the ruling party majority on the committee. Smith said: "If the Auditor General does what is expected of him, that (the financial details of the trip) will come out in the auditor general's normal course of business."

Referring to the trip he said it was known that "the security of the president and the deputy president" was of "utmost importance". Emphasising the point he said: "There is no distinction in terms of the security, whether private holiday or official business."

Mlambo-Ngcuka took a military aircraft on the trip to the UAE together with security detail and a friend - the wife of the Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya - and children of her personal assistant.

DA MP Anchon Dreyer said the security issue "has nothing to do with the issue" and the call for an investigation was also not "an electioneering issue". She said the good name of the deputy president "has been tainted" and that was why there was a need for an investigation. "I would have thought the ruling party would welcome an investigation."

Trent asked whether one could take "all one's friends" on a holiday on an unlimited budget. "We need to lay the matter to rest. We have faith in the Auditor General's impartiality. I rest my case, this is not a political matter ... but that money is spent in the best interests of the people of this country."

- I-Net Bridge (News24)