No free rides: ANC's hitchhike to Zim on air force plane costs it R105,000

The SA Air Force has slapped the ANC with a R105,000 bill for the controversial lift the party got from defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to Zimbabwe this month.

The figure is contained in documents President Cyril Ramaphosa made public on Wednesday, something he said he did in the interests of “transparency”.

The documents Mapisa-Nqakula submitted to Ramaphosa show that the one-day trip to Zimbabwe in September, in which she offered “to ferry” an ANC delegation to Harare on a party-political mission on the jet, cost the taxpayer R232,000 in total.

The ANC is now responsible for settling R105,000 of the bill for the transportation of its seven-member delegation, while the balance will be treated as normal costs to be incurred for flying the defence minister and her support staff to a meeting with her Zimbabwean counterpart.

In her report to Ramaphosa and an affidavit to public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Mapisa-Nqakula said she should “in hindsight” not have offered a lift to an ANC delegation.

On Saturday night, Ramaphosa issued an official reprimand to the minister, and docked her three months' pay.

This is a developing story.

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