The Sunday Times reports it has evidence that communications minister Dina Pule lied about her relationship with Phosane Mngqibisa.
The newspaper claims it has seen a document in which Pule listed Mngqibisa as her official "companion" - a term in the official ministerial handbook that refers to family, spouses or long term romantic partners whose travel expenses may be covered by the state.
The Sunday Times previously exposed that Mngqibisa had accompanied Pule on more than 20 international trips. The paper says the new documents raise questions about Mngqibisa's claims that he paid for his own expenses.
o Pule and Mngqibisa left on the same flight to the US on 31 August 2009 with the DOC paying R91 854 for his ticket.
o Pule and her group spent three nights at the Holiday Inn Parque Fundidora at a cost of R20 000, with only three rooms booked between the four of them.
o The department paid R67 497 extra per person to fly the group to New York on 4 September.
o Pule and Mngqibisa returned to SA on the same flight on 7 September.
The newspaper adds that Mngqibisa refused to answer questions on the matter saying it would be "extremely irregular for me to participate in what appears to be a parallel inquiry outside the parliamentary processes."
Lash back
On Friday, the department of communications said in a statement that Pule had lodged a formal complaint with the Press Ombudsman to investigate what she calls defamatory articles written about her in the Sunday Times.
The ministry's response follows after a report in the newspaper on 5 May, stating that Pule sent her lawyer, Ronnie Bokwa, to apologise after the minister held a press conference.
During the media briefing, she alleged that "serious and damaging" allegations published against her by three of Sunday Times journalists were part of a sophisticated ploy to intimidate her into swaying the multibillion-rand tender for set-top boxes in SA's migration to digital television.
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