ANC Secretary General has dismissed calls for the size of cabinet to be reduced along with their benefits which some believe constitute luxury when millions of South Africans languish in poverty.
Mbalula briefed the media at the party headquarters Luthuli House in Johannesburg where he expressed confidence that the budget will be adopted despite political parties’ initial widespread rejection of it.
Mbalula said perks of ministers have been cut from as far back and dismissed those calling for cuts as making noise.
“It is very easy for anyone to say cabinet and all of that, which is fine, but we have been cutting(0:06) even in the austerity budgets that have been implemented. This cutting has been going on. I mean the cutting will not be new except that in the GNU we have seen the increase of cabinet, which the intended goal was to decrease the numbers of cabinet members,” he said.
Mbalula who served as minister and deputy minister in the portfolios of police as well as sports used his own experience to try and amplify the point he was making.
“I was in government, and ministers have been affected by this cut. Blue light is not money, it’s cars. Blue light is just a traffic control measure and it must not be abused.
In government, when I left, government had cut on the expenditure of cars. Ministers used to drive cars in the range of one million, it was cut to 500,000. Packs like, what you call, credit cards were taken away probably 15 years ago and they are not there,” he said of his experience in government.
Among things raised by political parties including within the GNU as making the upkeep of members of the executive costly to the taxpayer is flights between Cape Town ( where parliament is located) and Pretoria, the seat of government but Mbalula said that too is exeggerated as ministers are no longer allowed to fly business class for domestic trips.
“Flying arrangement, ministers are flying economy, that was cut from flying business locally and domestically. You only fly business(1:00) international. There were cuts from first class to business. Also, if you fly for 10 hours, you’re supporting staff in terms of the number of international trips, where you find that (1:11) departmental staff were flying up and down to different meetings, which was cut. Ministers only approve the most important trips internationally. In terms of household, ministers were not paid,” said Mbalula.
The ministerial handbook also extends benefits such as protection and free flights to spouses and families of members including in-laws.
Mbalula said it was fair that ministers only pay for rates and taxes for one home if they have two or more.
“From the days of the late Tito Mboweni , when he was wearing those shoes, people did not understand. What do those shoes communicate? They were communicating one thing, that we’re in a difficult period economically and our expenditure in terms of government, (2:36) particularly on things like those.We must not want to live in a particular state, whereas we’re saying everybody must sacrifice. You could actually, literally, kill the founder of squatter camp,” he said in response to criticism that the ruling class was tone deaf to the daily realities of many South Africans.
A heated debate is expected when parliament will adopt or reject the budget.