Deputy min orders 2 new cars

2009-11-22 14:47

Johan Eybers

Pretoria – Taxpayers had to pay R1.1m after the deputy minister of trade and industry's four-year-old Mercedes-Benz E35 broke down.

Thandi Tobias-Pokolo used the opportunity to order two new official cars – a Mercedes-Benz E350 and an E300 – for transport in Cape Town and Pretoria, respectively.

Tobias-Pokolo said she didn’t know what had caused her car to break down but said she regarded it as “an indication that ministers are entitled to new, reliable vehicles so that they can meet their obligations without difficulties”.

She said she wasn’t surprised when her 2005 model, which she had inherited from her predecessor, had broken down on Saturday on the road between Bloemfontein and Kroonstad. The car was old and tired, she said, and had done 127 000km.

She said she nearly missed her flight to an important meeting overseas after being stuck by the side of the road for four hours.

Adam Ford, a car expert and presenter of the programme A Word on Cars on Talk Radio 702, said Tobias-Pokolo used the incident as a ridiculous excuse to buy new cars.

“Surely a car is a mechanical piece of machinery consisting of different parts. If there is a problem, you replace the part that caused the problem and not the whole vehicle. Even new vehicles may have faulty parts.”

Ford said Tobias-Pokolo should do “the right thing and only fix her current car”. The car is currently standing at her home in Waterkloof.

But Tobias-Pokolo said: “I’m saving the taxpayer R700 000 because I’m only spending R1.1m on cars while the ministerial handbook allows me to spend up to R1.8m.”
 
 
 

- Rapport