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Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
PHOTO: Daan Vivier, Netwerk24
- Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula did not say whether she informed President Cyril Ramaphosa that ANC officials would be traveling with her to Zimbabwe.
- He also sidestepped the question of whether the department of interior affairs verified the passports of ANC members.
- He said he did not go to Zimbabwe to see the waterfall, but to deal with serious problems.
Defense and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula avoided a question about whether she informed President Cyril Ramaphosa that ANC officials would be traveling with her to Harare on a South African air force plane. It also did not say whether officials from the department of interior affairs verified that the ANC delegation’s paperwork was in order.
Mapisa-Nqakula was answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
In a follow-up question, EFF deputy Nonhlanhla Mkhonto asked if he informed Ramaphosa that he would be traveling with ANC officials and if there were officials from the department of home affairs to verify their passports when they left the country.
“I prefer to wait for the outcome of the Public Protector’s investigation,” Mapisa-Nqakula replied. On September 8, Mapisa-Nqakula went to Zimbabwe on an air force plane, as he is allowed to do.
But there were also civilians on the flight, all of them ANC officials: Ace Magashule, Tony Yengeni, Nomvula Mokonyane, Enoch Godongwana and Dakota Legoete. Mapisa-Nqakula met with his Zimbabwean counterpart Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri on September 9, which turned out to be the same day that the ANC delegation will meet with Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF. The meeting was arranged two days before.
On the same day, he requested the required presidential approval, although the Ministerial Manual requires that approval be requested at least two weeks in advance.
READ ALSO | Zim junket: Ramaphosa gave Mapisa-Nqakula ‘verbal approval’ for the visit the day he left
After News24 reported that Ramaphosa only approved Mapisa-Nqakula’s trip in writing the day after his return, the presidency issued a statement saying that Ramaphosa gave his verbal approval on September 8. After a public outcry, Ramaphosa ordered Mapisa-Nqakula to provide information about the flight.
The Public Protector also launched an investigation after the complaints were filed. After examining the documents provided by Mapisa-Nqakula, which included an affidavit to the Public Protector, Ramaphosa discovered that she made an “error in judgment” and sanctioned her with the payment of three months’ salary.
In the application for permission to travel abroad, which Mapisa-Nqakula handed to Ramaphosa, it was not mentioned that the ANC delegation would accompany her. On August 31, after a meeting of the ANC NEC, Ramaphosa said: “The Secretary General [of the ANC, Ace Magashule] the delegation that will travel to Zimbabwe in a few days to meet with Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party will be finalizing. “
The original question was posed by DA MP Kobus Marais.
Mapisa-Nqakula previously said that it was common practice to transport businessmen and others on air force planes.
Marais asked how many times since January 1, 2015, businessmen and other categories of people had been transported on those planes when they were traveling to the same destination while the aircraft was being used for official government purposes.
Mapisa-Nqakula said his office did not keep those records, but asked the air force for the required information. She said Marais would recall offering an air force flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the Joint Standing Committee on Defense, of which he is a member, in 2018 after Parliament had booked commercial flights.
Mapisa-Nqakula said:
They made me feel like I woke up in the morning, took a plane and went to Livingstone to see the waterfalls. I didnot do that. I went to Zimbabwe, having recovered from Covid-19, to solve real critical problems that affect us all as a country.
“From a human point of view, it would have been very selfish of me to jump on a plane alone and fly to Zimbabwe, letting people who were also going to Zimbabwe deal with the same problems that I was going to tackle. “
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