28th September, 2020
The salary of South Africa’s Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula would be docked for three months over ANC’s September trip to Zimbabwe, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
This comes after Mapisa-Nqakula gave an ANC delegation including Secretary General Ace Magashule a lift to Zimbabwe on an airforce jet.
The delegation used the opportunity to meet with Zimbabwe’s ruling party Zanu-PF over political issues happening there.
The president said “it was an error of judgment” to use a state aircraft to deliver a political message to another country.
“The President has further sanctioned the Minister by imposing a salary sacrifice on the Minister’s salary for three months, starting from 1 November 2020,” acting president’s spokesman Tyrone Seale said.
The amount would be paid to the Solidarity Fund set up to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ramaphosa has also informed the minister to direct the ANC to repay the costs of the flight to Harare and report to him once that has been completed.