Eastern Cape taxpayers have been paying for summer holidays for the family of ANC chief whip Mzoleli Mrara’s “love child” for the past six years.
The most recent was last summer’s four-day holiday in Cape Town for Mrara, his 10-year-old love child and her mother, who are not being named to protect the child.
Saturday Dispatch today can reveal that Mrara instructed his office to book them – the 10-year-old and her mother – for four nights between December 10 and 14 last year at the four-star Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel in Cape Town.
The holiday was paid for using ANC constituency funds after Mrara rejected an earlier booking for his “family” at the Southern Sun De Waal in Cape Town’s city centre.
The Dispatch has seen copies of vouchers for the two hotels.
A chief whip is responsible for ensuring rules of the legislature are followed by members of his party.
Records from the legislature, leaked to the Dispatch, reveal that Mrara – the ruling party’s most senior member of the legislature who also serves as the accounting officer of both the caucus and constituency funds – gave instructions that the ANC’s constituency funds be used to book a family room at the Southern Sun hotel for “Mr M Mrara and family (wife and child)”.
His wife did not make the trip. Instead, the mother of his child and the child flew from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town and checked in at the hotel together with Mrara.
A source, who has worked at the legislature for more than 10 years, said this booking was not the first one as secretaries had been making holiday bookings since 2009. The trips were paid for by the taxpayer, through the constituency funds allocated to the ANC.
The mother of Mrara’s child this month started working in Mrara’s office after he appointed her as one of two researchers.
“Everyone is aware that bookings have been made for Mr Mrara’s daughter and partner since 2009. That is no secret,” the source said.
Documents show that mother and daughter were supposed to check in at the up-market Cape Town hotel on December 9 and check out on December 14. The bill for their stay came to R10208.66. They did not arrive as scheduled because they missed their flight from Port Elizabeth. As a result Mrara wrote an urgent letter on the same day (December 9) to the finance section of the ANC’s constituency office in Bhisho: “Kindly take note than two dependents of the Chief Whip has missed a flight travelling from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town on December 9, 2014 and their ticket was pre-arranged. Your office therefore is requested to arrange a single ticket for them as (the travel agency) is disconnected and cannot assist them on their predicament.”
Documents in possession of the Dispatch confirm that on December 10, all three were booked on to a flight from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town and that the travel agency billed the ANC’s constituency fund R7418.37 for the trip.
The woman began working in Mrara’s office last Monday, and one well-placed legislature source said the staff were were surprised to see her being hired.
Documents obtained by the Dispatch show that mother and daughter appear in Mrara’s official list of dependents who benefit from an air travelling allowance. In a form he submitted on September 5 2013, Mrara listed the child as his daughter. Though sharing the same surname as the child, Mrara listed the mother of the child as a friend.
This week, Mrara confirmed to the Dispatch that the woman had been hired as a researcher at his office. He did not see the appointment as nepotism, saying he was “confident in the process (of recruitment) we undertook. There was no dispute on their appointment”.
Mrara could not be reached to respond to allegations that he misused his travel allowance and taxpayers’ money to book holidays for the woman.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane could only confirm that the party’s caucus did hire new researchers, and that the party believed that “everything was done above board”.
On the misuse of constituency funds, Mabuyane said: “Obviously that will be very wrong. It’s just that we don’t have facts at hand … It will be very unfortunate for something like that to happen. We will have to look into it.”
The legislature had not responded to questions from the Dispatch and the South African Communist Party refused to comment.
Public pay for chief whip’s love jaunts
The most recent was last summer’s four-day holiday in Cape Town for Mrara, his 10-year-old love child and her mother, who are not being named to protect the child.
Saturday Dispatch today can reveal that Mrara instructed his office to book them – the 10-year-old and her mother – for four nights between December 10 and 14 last year at the four-star Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel in Cape Town.
The holiday was paid for using ANC constituency funds after Mrara rejected an earlier booking for his “family” at the Southern Sun De Waal in Cape Town’s city centre.
The Dispatch has seen copies of vouchers for the two hotels.
A chief whip is responsible for ensuring rules of the legislature are followed by members of his party.
Records from the legislature, leaked to the Dispatch, reveal that Mrara – the ruling party’s most senior member of the legislature who also serves as the accounting officer of both the caucus and constituency funds – gave instructions that the ANC’s constituency funds be used to book a family room at the Southern Sun hotel for “Mr M Mrara and family (wife and child)”.
His wife did not make the trip. Instead, the mother of his child and the child flew from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town and checked in at the hotel together with Mrara.
A source, who has worked at the legislature for more than 10 years, said this booking was not the first one as secretaries had been making holiday bookings since 2009. The trips were paid for by the taxpayer, through the constituency funds allocated to the ANC.
The mother of Mrara’s child this month started working in Mrara’s office after he appointed her as one of two researchers.
“Everyone is aware that bookings have been made for Mr Mrara’s daughter and partner since 2009. That is no secret,” the source said.
Documents show that mother and daughter were supposed to check in at the up-market Cape Town hotel on December 9 and check out on December 14. The bill for their stay came to R10208.66. They did not arrive as scheduled because they missed their flight from Port Elizabeth. As a result Mrara wrote an urgent letter on the same day (December 9) to the finance section of the ANC’s constituency office in Bhisho: “Kindly take note than two dependents of the Chief Whip has missed a flight travelling from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town on December 9, 2014 and their ticket was pre-arranged. Your office therefore is requested to arrange a single ticket for them as (the travel agency) is disconnected and cannot assist them on their predicament.”
Documents in possession of the Dispatch confirm that on December 10, all three were booked on to a flight from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town and that the travel agency billed the ANC’s constituency fund R7418.37 for the trip.
The woman began working in Mrara’s office last Monday, and one well-placed legislature source said the staff were were surprised to see her being hired.
Documents obtained by the Dispatch show that mother and daughter appear in Mrara’s official list of dependents who benefit from an air travelling allowance. In a form he submitted on September 5 2013, Mrara listed the child as his daughter. Though sharing the same surname as the child, Mrara listed the mother of the child as a friend.
This week, Mrara confirmed to the Dispatch that the woman had been hired as a researcher at his office. He did not see the appointment as nepotism, saying he was “confident in the process (of recruitment) we undertook. There was no dispute on their appointment”.
Mrara could not be reached to respond to allegations that he misused his travel allowance and taxpayers’ money to book holidays for the woman.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane could only confirm that the party’s caucus did hire new researchers, and that the party believed that “everything was done above board”.
On the misuse of constituency funds, Mabuyane said: “Obviously that will be very wrong. It’s just that we don’t have facts at hand … It will be very unfortunate for something like that to happen. We will have to look into it.”
The legislature had not responded to questions from the Dispatch and the South African Communist Party refused to comment.
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