Government uses government funds as their piggy bank, they decide what it is we must pay and what not.. I was not aware that we now pay for the Mandela private matters too.. WTF.. I wish this Mandela saga will end now.. it is costing us taxpayers a lot of money.. We could have used this money to create jobs... Chartered plane for ‘indigent’ Mandelas As the Mandelas pleaded poverty to get legal aid to settle the court bill in their family dispute, they were whizzing between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape in a privately chartered jet. The Sisulu family paid for the trips between Joburg and Mthatha, but one of the chartered jets was organised through the Department of Public Service and Administration’s travel agent. Moyikwa Sisulu this week confirmed paying for the charter of three flights for the Mandela family at the end of June in their grave battle with Mandla Mandela. “This is a private matter. It was more an attempt to mediate issues. They are an extension of the family. “It was paid for by my office… It is a service we extended to the family. There has been a lot of strain on them and we were trying to help,” he said. Moyikwa is the son of the late Zwelakhe Sisulu and nephew of Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who is a cousin of Nelson Mandela’s eldest surviving daughter Makaziwe Mandela. The Mandelas came under fire earlier this week after it emerged that 16 members had applied for the legal service reserved for the poorest of the poor to pay for their legal representatives, in spite of what some may consider their lavish lifestyle, owning property in Gauteng’s leafy suburbs and driving expensive vehicles. The family had taken the former president’s eldest grandson Mandla Mandela to court to compel him to return the remains of three of their relatives from Mvezo to Qunu. Approached this week for comment, Makaziwe did not respond to calls or SMSes. Her niece Ndileka said: “It’s none of your damn business. Just mind your own businesses people.” The Sunday Independent understands that the family’s first flight was on June 25 to attend an urgent family meeting to discuss the removal of the remains. The flight – on an eight seater Hawker Siddeley jet – was from Lanseria Airport to Mthatha Airport at 8.40am and was only 40 minutes long. It was chartered by Owen Air – a charter flight service. Owen Air official Clive Skinner would not comment on the flight. “It went through a travel agent. That is as much as we know,” he said. Asked which travel agency was involved, Skinner said: “We are not at liberty to reveal that.” Minister Sisulu was on the flight, with several members of the Mandela family. Contacted, Sisulu’s spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya said the “travel arrangements were not done by the state for the visits but by the Sisulu family”. Moyikwa confirmed that the bill was sent to his office. “My aunt’s office organised the flight but the bill was sent to my office,” he said. The only reason that the Department of Public Service and Administration was involved in the arrangements, said Moyikwa, was that the minister was on the flight. “They make all her travel arrangements,” he said. Moyikwa said he was on the second flight three days later but his aunt was not. On the third flight, he had used his friend’s plane. Moyikwa would not confirm how much he had forked out but said that they did not use one specific company for the flights. Asked why he had not arranged flights via the commercial airlines, he said the arrangements were last minute and quite urgent. They would have missed the early morning flight and would not have been back in Gauteng by late afternoon. “We needed the flexibility. It was the convenience of the flight,” he said. Meanwhile, Rhodes University has defended its decision to offer the family legal aid, saying its law clinic had applied the means tests as stipulated by Legal Aid SA. This was established on an individual basis rather than a group. People who qualified for legal aid earned less than R5 500 a month after tax, were pensioners, or received state grants. Their homes and belongings were not worth more than R300 000. But earlier this week The Star reported that the Mandelas were far from indigent. Makaziwe lives in a R13.6m house in Hyde Park, Sandton, while her daughter owns a R1.7m house in Morningside. Her daughter, Tukwini, owns a R1.7m Morningside home. Nandi Mandela drives a Jaguar and owns two properties in KwaZulu-Natal. Registered under a trust, both have a combined value of R3.3m. Zenani, Mandela’s daughter by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has been ambassador to Argentina since last July. Zindzi, another of Winnie’s daughters, owns a house in Houghton Estate, bought for R2m in 2000. - The Sunday Independent
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 15:31:50 +0000