Communications minister Roy Padayachie is vigorously defending his use of an expensive hotel from 2004 until 2008, but opposition political parties want it investigated and say they will be keeping an eye on his behaviour.
Padayachie, who replaced Siphiwe Nyanda in the cabinet shakeup earlier this month, has been well received by industry and political parties, but a weekend newspaper report has spoilt the honeymoon.
The Sunday Times' story states that during his term as deputy to, then, communications minister, the late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Padayachie stayed at the five-star Pretoria Sheraton at taxpayers expense. The report estimates that his bill could have been as high as R2.3 million and that he rented Mercedes Benz cars and refused the furniture at his official residence that was provided by the Department of Public Works.
Nyanda's term of office from May 2009 until November this year was marred by controversy at the start. This included the buying of two BMW cars valued at more than R1m each and his stay at luxury hotels costing more than R500 000, during a period of economic austerity.
Padaychie's response
Speaking to ITWeb yesterday Padayachie defended his stay at the five-star hotel and said he actively searched for his official house himself.
“After being appointed as deputy minister I was told there was no accommodation available and would have to wait. I walked around Pretoria (Bryntirion Estate - the official ministerial accommodation) and found a vacant house. I asked about it and was told it was structurally unsound and so I asked the Department of Public Works to renovate it so I could move in,” he says.
Padayachie says that about nine months later, when the house was ready, it was then suddenly allocated to then-Deputy President Phumzile Malambo-Ngcuka for a few months as her official residence was being renovated.
“I then moved in and I am still using that same house today even though I had been given the option of moving twice - once last year when I was made deputy public service and administration minister and again now when I was made communications minister. But I refused both offers,” he says.
Padayachie says the decision to stay at the Sheraton hotel was based on the security requirements dictated by the SA Police Service's VIP Protection Unit that requires a place with restricted access.
According to a statement issued by Padayachie's office yesterday, the hire of the Mercedes Benz cars was also necessitated by security concerns.
Padayachie's office is due to issue another statement on today concerning the whole issue.
Public Protector
Based on the Sunday Times report, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is planning to write to the Public Protector to investigate.
DA shadow communications minister Natasha Michael says: “I want the Public Protector to investigate why this news has taken so long to come out; if the Auditor General picked this up, why it was not dealt with, and why (Padayachie) had to stay in a luxury hotel if his house had structural problems that could not have been so severe if Deputy President could have stayed there.”
It was a finding by the Public Protector against Padayachie's predecessor Nyanda over his support for suspended Transnet Freight CEO Siyabonga Gama that led to President Jacob Zuma having to issue Nyanda a letter of reprimand - an extremely embarrassing action for government.
Opulent tendency
Juli Kilian, COPE communications spokesperson says that she has received reliable information that Padayachie has expensive tastes, but believes that conducting an investigation into an incident that happened so long ago would be fruitless.
“I have been told reliably that Padayachie has a tendency to the opulence and because of that we will have to watch his future behaviour very carefully,” she says.
Kilian's party colleague Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who was Department of Communications director general for that period, says: “Accommodation is a line function of (Department of) Public Works. I was not responsible for where the minister lives.” Shope-Mafole is now a COPE member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
Share