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South Africa is in the grips of an economic recession, and the ANC government has gone out of its way to emphasise the need for frugality and prudence in the way that it spends public money if it is to deliver services and properly manage our budget deficit.

In his address to Parliament during the 2009 Budget Vote Debate, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan warned that the state has to be more disciplined in the way it manages its money. He stated: "After seven years of growing budgets and rising revenues there is a degree of fiscal looseness in the system and now is the time to tighten up on that looseness." He continued, "Money is not the problem ... it is how we spend the money. This has to improve."

The DA agrees with the Finance Minister. Unfortunately, the culture of excess that has seemed to define many of the spending decisions made by the executive does not seem to be changing. Meanwhile, ordinary members of the South African the public - many of whom have lost work and are struggling to make ends meet - have been forced to watch on as the ANC continues to spend exorbitant amounts on what often amounts to little more than personal indulgence.

As part of its oversight role as the Official Opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is today launching a ‘Wasteful Expenditure Monitor', which comprises a table of examples of fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the ANC government.

The monitor is available on the DA website.

It has been created in order to enable members of the public to monitor the extent of the ANC government's excessive expenditure, and to demonstrate just how often the wants of the ANC elite are put before the needs of ordinary citizens.

Using this monitor, the DA will track examples of unnecessary or extravagant spending since Jacob Zuma's new administration came into office (although some examples do overlap with the previous administration).

To date, the total amount wasted stands at approximately R57 million.

Some examples included the table are:

The R10.6 million spent on the KwaZulu-Natal Premier's inauguration;
The R2.4 million spent on luxury cars by the Minister of Communications;
The R5 million a year spent on hosting exiled former-president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Artistide;
The R700 000 spent on two full page colour advertisements by the Department of Correctional Services; and
The R5.5 million spent on a new tourism website by the Durban City Council.

In response to the public outcry over their expenditure of over R2 million each on a pair of new top-of-the-range luxury cars for their use when they assumed office, Communications Minister, Gen. Siphiwe Nyanda, and Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, both referred to the stipulations of the Ministerial Handbook as adequate justification for their spending. But in the context of Minister Gordhan's remarks, and out of respect for the voters who have placed government ministers in high office, this "I did it because I can" argument simply can not be allowed to pass muster.

The DA will be supplementing and updating the table as and when new examples occur. In every case we will use those mechanisms available to us to determine who is responsible for wasteful expenditure in government, to establish the reasons for this, if any, and, where necessary, to hold those responsible to account.