The Democratic Alliance today calls on KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala, to issue a public apology to the people of our province for having misled them about the amount of money spent on buying new SUVs for the Zulu royal queens.
The call comes after information received by the DA in the form of a written parliamentary reply (view here).
Late last year, the Premier handed over five brand new vehicles for the wives of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini and a sixth vehicle for the queen’s mother.
At the time, he was quoted in a 17 December Independent Newspapers media report as saying that “the vehicles bought for the queens was below R800 000 for each one of the six vehicles, in line with the prescripts of the national government.”
However, the reply to the DA’s questions, which is signed by him, has now revealed that this is not the case. According to the response;
– Five of the six cars – Toyota Prados – were purchased at a cost of more than R1 million each (R200 000 more than the national government prescripts on each vehicle)
– Only a sixth car – a Toyota Fortuner – was purchased in line with national government prescripts, at a cost of R673 000 and;
– The total budget for the six cars – R5 million – was overspent by R695 467.
It is difficult to understand why the Premier lied about these costs during the handover. Certainly, he wasn’t under any pressure at the time to justify any expenses.
The question is whether he deliberately misled the people or whether he was given the incorrect information by his own officials. If the latter is the case, then he must indicate exactly who misled him and what action will be taken.
The Premier has also been extremely evasive when it comes to the purchase of a seventh vehicle for the late Queen Mantfombi’s household.
Originally, his office committed to doing so and the budget for this car was allocated. However, the purchase did not go ahead. Regrettably, the Premier does not seem to want to provide answers on this despite the DA now having submitted two written parliamentary questions on this issue. (view here)
When he took office, the Premier signed an oath where he swore to always conduct himself in an honest and transparent manner. The DA believes that by not being truthful, he is in contravention of this pledge.
The DA will not allow a situation where the Premier misleads the people when it comes to how this funding is spent – particularly when our province is already cash-strapped and services have declined to such an extent.
We expect him to be honest and tell us why he said that the six vehicles were bought for less than R800 000 each.
We expect him to be honest and admit that his office ignored the R5 million budget for and instead spent R5.6 million.
We also expect him to advise whether this amount was approved by Treasury. The DA will, in the interim, submit a parliamentary question to Treasury to establish this. In the event that it was not approved, this is set to be yet another red-flag for KZN from the Auditor-General.
The Premier’s conduct is a slap in the face for the people of KZN. It smacks of arrogance and the belief that he can simply do as he chooses when it comes to public funds. This is exactly the kind of behaviour that led to the ANC receiving a hiding in the 2021 Local Government Elections.
The DA expects the Premier to explain his actions to the people of KZN. If – as he claims – he is committed to transparency, then he must step up and do the right thing in the spirit of good governance and accountability and not try to run away from the issue.
The people of our province deserve nothing less.
