National Treasury turned down a request from Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba for staff travelling with him to fly business class, according to a response to parliamentary question.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan gave details of instances where treasury received requests for permission to deviate from cost-containment measures introduced three years ago.

In the instance of home affairs, the department asked for an exception to be made because sticking to the rules would have meant that officials took longer to disembark from a flight than Gigaba, thereby delaying him.

“The minister was inconvenienced and had to further wait for the disembarking of the personnel assistant from another terminal to be able to proceed with the trip which resulted in the Minister arriving late for scheduled appointments,” the department’s motivation for the request read.

Treasury found that it was not sufficient reason to allow a departure from the rules, replying that: “The Minister’s support staff must be treated the same as all other employees and therefore must fly economy class unless paragraph 4.9 of the National Treasury Instruction 01 of 2013/2014 applies.”

The response to a question from DA finance spokesperson David Maynier also revealed that requests for exceptions from Eskom and the Land Bank, among others, were also turned down.

Maynier commented: “The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, is clearly desperately trying to hold the fiscal line but his belt-tightening measures are being resisted by Ministers and officials too accustomed to the high life.”