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Sout
h African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka did nothing
wrong when she used an air force plane to fly with her family and
friends to the United Arab Emirates for a holiday, an official
investigation concluded.
“It cannot be found that the deputy president acted
improperly or that she failed to act in good faith,” Public
Protector Lawrence Mushwana said in a report released in Cape Town
last week. “She was entitled, as anyone else in her similar
position and status, to take her family, a friend and the children
of her private secretary with her to the UAE and no-one therefore
benefited improperly from the trip.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka was widely criticized for wasting public funds in a
country where more than a third of the population lives in poverty.
President Thabo Mbeki defended his deputy's travel arrangements
were made by the state security services in accordance with
government policy.
The trip cost taxpayers about R604 883 ($84,431), excluding costs
incurred by her security personnel, Mushwana said.
He found the state had a legal obligation to protect serving and
former presidents and their deputies at all times.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, a former mines minister, replaced Jacob Zuma as
deputy president on June 22. Zuma was fired by Mbeki on June 14
after a court ruled that Zuma's financial adviser tried to solicit
a bribe for him.
The government spent R6,8-million protecting Zuma in the year
through March, 5 million rand protecting former President Nelson
Mandela and 3 million rand on Mandela's predecessor, Fredrik Willem
de Klerk, Mushwana said.
The Public Protector is supposed to ensure that the government
remains accountable to the people it serves. Newspapers and
opposition parties have accused Mushwana, a former ruling party
lawmaker, of failing to do his job properly.
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