Ramaphosa docks Mapisa-Nqakula’s salary over trip to Zimbabwe

President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued Defence and Military veterans minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula with a formal reprimand which includes docking her salary for three months over the ANC’s controversial trip to Zimbabwe.

It emerged in September that ANC members had gone on a party political trip to meet with Zimbabwean ruling party Zanu-PF and Mapisa had provided a lift to ANC members on a state jet.

While the trip was aimed at the ANC meeting Zanu-PF over alleged tensions in Zimbabwe, the ANC has since issued an apology with intent to pay back costs of the trip.

Ramaphosa has reprimanded Mapisa-Nqakula for conveying the ANC’s delegation to Zimbabwe on an aircraft of the defence force.

Ramaphosa has imposed a salary sacrifice on Mapisa-Nqakula’s salary for three months, starting on November 1, 2020, which will be paid into the Solidarity Fund, established to partly combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

He further instructed the Defence and Military veterans minister to ensure that the ANC reimbursed the state for costs incurred and report to him once that has been done.

The presidency found that Mapisa-Nqakula did not act in the best interest of good governance, failed to adhere to legal prescripts warranting care in the use of state resources and had acted in a way that was inconsistent of her position as required by the Executive Code.

“The sanction imposed on the minister demonstrated the seriousness with which the president viewed the minister’s error of judgment, given her high position in government,” the Presidency said in a statement

The sanction followed Ramaphosa’s consideration of a report that he had directed Mapisa-Nqakula to provide on the circumstances that led to the ANC delegation travelling on the SA Airforce plane to Zimbabwe on September 8, 2020.

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