Ntshavheni, Ndabeni-Abrahams ‘parasites’ for spending R3 million on hotels, say EFF

The EFF says it’s “appalled and disgusted” by the revelation that the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies spent a staggering R15 million on accommodation, in just three years, for the department’s two ministers, their deputies, and staff.

This after a parliamentary response from the department’s acting director-general (DG), Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, revealed that Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and her predecessor, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, had spent a total of R15,345,562.86 on accommodation since May 2019.

Of this amount, R3,615,001.95 was spent on Ndabeni-Abrahams and Ntshavheni’s accommodation from May 2019 to May 2022.   

R1,021,003.90 was paid to accommodate their deputy ministers, and more than R10 million was spent on staff in the department.

The total amount spent by the department on catering for the period in question was R739,000.

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Ndabeni-Abrahams was the minister of communications and digital technologies from November 2018 to July 2021 before Ntshavheni took over her position in August 2021.

Ndabeni-Abrahams is currently the minister of small business development.

‘Lavish lifestyles’

The EFF on Wednesday said while the rest of the country and the world were suffering from travel-related restrictions as a result of Covid-19, Ndabeni-Abrahams and Ntshavheni were living a “lavish lifestyle” at the expense of taxpayers.

 “Ntshavheni, Ndabeni-Abrahams and their deputies spent R5 million combined on accommodation, while the globe was battling a deadly and restrictive pandemic.

“This accommodation was inclusive of hundreds of thousands of rand spent on food, including an outrageous amount of R739,000 on catering since 2019,” the party’s spokesperson Sinawo Tambo said in a statement.

‘Exorbitant amounts of money’

Tambo said these revelations came as no surprise to the Red Berets, claiming that both ministers had been implicated in corruption scandals and the misuse of state resources in the past.

“The inhumanity of spending such exorbitant amounts of money on accommodation while government meetings and interactions have been held virtually for the past three years is indicative of parasites who have no regard for the massive poverty of ordinary people.”

The EFF described Ndabeni-Abrahams and Ntshavheni as “parasites who use the state as a means of personal enrichment”.

“If [President Cyril] Ramaphosa has any semblance of decency and commitment to rooting out corruption, he will remove these self-obsessed and good for nothing individuals, who misused state money in the face of retrenchments, closure of businesses, and death.”

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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