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The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, to ascertain who footed the bill for her trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Minister’s spokesperson, Lumka Oliphant, has claimed that the Minister was in Addis Ababa on state business.

Yet media reports, and even photographs emerging from the visit, indicate that Minister Dlamini has been engaged in her capacity as ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) President.

In fact, the ANCWL claimed earlier this week that the league was launching its task team and young women’s desk in Addis Ababa.

It is therefore highly likely that public money was used to pay for what was principally a party trip abroad.

Yesterday’s essential meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development to consider progress made in the distribution of social grants by 1 April 2017, was cancelled because key “stakeholders” were attending an ANC Lekgotla meeting.

It is now increasingly clear why the meeting didn’t in fact go ahead. The Minister has again been too busy jet-setting around the world to make time for the 17 million South Africans who rely on social assistance from the state to survive.

The DA will not allow the poor to be treated like this, especially at a time when food inflation has made it more difficult for so many people to get by.

We will demand to know who paid for these flights. If the Department did foot the bill, we will use all mechanisms available to us to ensure that every cent is paid back to the Department.

This is money that should be used to help the vulnerable members of our society, and not for the sponsoring of the Minister’s party business

Issued by DA