The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The ID Secretary-General's comments come after a Sunday newspaper revealed that Mthethwa spent over half a million rand on an intermittent stay at the Hilton Hotel in his hometown of Durban earlier this year.

‘In light of the fact that this is the second such revelation about the same Minister in less than two weeks, words cannot describe how disgusted the ID is,' Mr Hoosen says.

‘Is this the extent to which ANC leaders have lost touch with the very people that vote us into our positions?'

Hoosen believes the solution ‘lies in changing the way in which the Ministerial Handbook is approved.

‘The Cabinet's powers to approve the handbook must be taken away. Perks, privileges and allowances for Ministers should be determined by a similar process to the Moseneke Commission,' says Hoosen.

The commission, headed by Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, was tasked with examining remuneration for public office bearers.

‘It is precisely because Ministers have determined their own benefits that we have gotten into this mess in the first place,' Hoosen says.

‘This is why they are buying huge, expensive cars and living it up in the top hotels - and all this while more than half of our people are living on scraps and remain the victims of the ANC's pathetically slow pace of delivery.'