The ANC has been accused of abusing state resources after its delegation touched down in Harare this week on the South African Air Force jet for a meeting with Zanu-PF.
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula at a media briefing on 16 March 2020 on plans by government to curb the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa. Picture: Sethembiso Zulu/EWN
JOHANNESBURG – The South African National Defence Union (Sandu) has defended the Defence minister’s decision to give her African National Congress (ANC) colleagues a lift to Zimbabwe in a military jet, saying that we were living in unique circumstances under lockdown.
The ANC has been accused of abusing state resources after its delegation touched down in Harare this week on the South African Air Force jet for a meeting with Zanu-PF.
The Defence department said that the ANC delegation’s trip “happened” to coincide with Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s plans to travel there, so they joined her in the jet.
Sandu’s national secretary Pikkie Greeff said that given the lockdown with no commercial flights available, it made sense to share the jet.
“If the minister was, in any case, going there, why not take people along that you feel comfortable with in assisting you in reaching your goals or reaching your objectives. Of course, it would be an entirely different matter… I’ve seen reports of family members going along and I don’t know whether that’s true and I’ve got no comment on that… if that is the case, that is abuse and that needs to be investigated.”
