Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, 2 April 2019. Picture: Siyabulela Duda / GCIS
After trending on social media for an embarrassing mix up in which she stated that her husband has never been to Switzerland, only to Geneva, Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has issued yet another statement in which she claims she meant to say France instead of Geneva.
She issued the statement after appearing on eNCA on Wednesday morning where she spoke to Xoli Mngambi about allegations of misuse of state resources levelled against her.
According to said allegations, she used public money to fund her anniversary celebrations by taking her husband, Thato Abrahams, along on working visits to the US and Switzerland. It is further alleged that Abrahams used his wife’s officially supplied “chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz S600” to travel from Geneva to Paris, in France, “to go shopping”.
The minister had previously dismissed the allegations as a “malicious smear campaign” and claimed that the trip simply coincided with their wedding anniversary. She did, however. deny that any public funds were not used and/or misused to fund the trip and related activities.
“Do you think I would take my husband to a wedding anniversary in Switzerland? I’ve never been to Switzerland. My husband has never been to Switzerland. We went to Geneva and New York to, of course, do the work that I’m expected to do,” Ndabeni Abrahams said to Mngambi.
Social media users spent all morning trying to figure out what she meant which lead to the words Geneva and Switzerland trending at number one and two respectively.
Ndabeni-Abrahams has since issued an apology and claimed her mixup was a simple slip of the tongue.
According to an official statement issued by her team, her utterance was erroneous and she apologises profusely for it.
She meant to clarify that there was nothing untoward about having her husband on the trip to Geneva as it is allowed as per the guidelines in the ministerial handbook. What she meant to say was that he did not take a leisurely trip to France from Geneva as previously reported.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’ statement on the Geneva mix-up
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’ statement on the Geneva mix-up
WATCH: Ndabeni-Abrahams says she and husband went to Geneva, not Switzerland
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