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Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) received a response to a parliamentary question submitted to the Minister of Tourism regarding the use of rented cars by himself and his deputy over the past year. The Minister’s response revealed that, since March 2010, R310 888 has been spent by his department on hiring cars. It is of serious concern that the Deputy Minister alone used rented cars on 32 occasions, spending R264 201 of state funds in the process. This constitutes wasteful and fruitless expenditure, and further confirms the DA’s suspicions that excessive spending on car rentals is a cabinet-wide problem.
A copy of the reply can be viewed by clicking here.
The Minister of Tourism’s response brings the total number of ministries that have comprehensively replied to DA’s question about car rental expenditure to five. The total expenditure on car hire by members of the executive, as revealed by these five responses, now totals R1 176 099.
The DA believes the scale of this expenditure to be indulgent and entirely inappropriate. Hiring a Mercedes Benz or BMW costs roughly R700 to R900 per day. Many of the replies received thus far indicate that Ministers and Deputy Ministers spend up to as much R4000 per day on hired vehicles – indicating that Ministers are opting to hire luxurious vehicles at exorbitant rates.
The results of the replies received by the DA thus far are as follows:

Department Total spent since March 2010 Comments
Public Works R436 911 /
Labour X Minister rented cars on 12 occasions - but failed to indicate total cost
Arts and Culture R118 083 /
Economic Development X Failed to answer the question
Mineral Resources R251 034 /
Trade and Industry R59 183 /
Tourism R310 888 Deputy Minister spent R264 201 and rented cars on 32 occasions




















A certain level of expenditure on car hire is quite acceptable, but the trend that has begun to emerge from the replies received thus far by the DA raise serious questions about the degree of financial prudence being exercised by the Zuma cabinet.
In the DA-run Western Cape, the ministerial handbook has been rewritten to curb excessive expenditure on items such as car hiring and buying luxury cars. This stands in stark contrast to the reluctance with which the updating of the national ministerial handbook has been managed. Despite assertions by Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi, that amendments to the national handbook would be made public “certainly before the World Cup”, the Zuma government continues to stall on the release of the changes. The excessive car hire expenditure by members of the executive illustrates exactly why these changes should be implemented and made public as soon as possible.