South African ministers spend over R200 million on travel in a time of crisis
Deputy President Paul Mashatile's trip to Japan trip has sparked debate over the R900,000 accommodation costs which has drawn scrutiny amid rising concerns over government travel spending.
"A DISTURBING pattern of unchecked luxury", is what ActionSA accused the ministers in the Government of National Unity for having spent over R200 million on travel since stepping into office a year ago.
The party was reacting to supposed spurge of the government officials in question, having considered data provided by the party's GNU Performance Tracker, based on replies to parliamentary questions.
The questions were posed to all ministers - including President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President Paul Mashatile, and the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, who emerged as the big hitters.
"This paints a damning picture of executive indulgence at a time of deep economic crisis,' ActionSA said in a statement, calling the trend 'a disturbing pattern of unchecked luxury and weak oversight.'
At the centre of the controversy is Mashatile, whose office confirmed spending over R2 million on transport and accommodation for official duties. Four international trips undertaken on behalf of Ramaphosa have cost the state more than R7.9 million, including visits to Ireland, the UK, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Japan.
One trip, a four-night visit to Tokyo in March 2025, drew particular criticism after it was revealed that accommodation alone cost more than R900,000 - approximately R225 000 a day.
McKenzie and his department have spent around R6.6 million on international travel, including a R164,556 payment for a cancelled trip to Burkina Faso, raising questions about financial oversight.
Amid ongoing public debate, IOL News compiled a detailed breakdown of luxury hotel costs in Tokyo.
While the R900,000 figure raised eyebrows, analysis suggests such expenses are possible in one of the world's most expensive cities, especially when top-tier hotels and executive suites are involved.
However, the costs have fuelled public concern over whether officials are appropriately balancing international representation with fiscal responsibility.
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Daily Maverick
7 hours ago
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Daily Maverick
7 hours ago
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But, in some instances – for example, dealing with the Trump administration in the Oval Office – he has appeared out of his depth. Lamola has provided basic continuity in SA's foreign policy, which is identical to that of the former ANC government. This has been a sticking point for other parties in the GNU, which have called out the ANC for ' monopolising ' SA's foreign policy. – Victoria O'Regan Siviwe Gwarube At just 35, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has emerged as a dynamic force who has brought much-needed optimism into a beleaguered system. Gwarube has made early childhood development a priority, with a sharp focus on foundational literacy and numeracy, recognising that strong beginnings lead to long-term success. 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She also missed her self-imposed deadline to eliminate pit toilets by March 2025, a failure with life-or-death consequences. SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED Paul Mashatile It is genuinely hard to find a redeeming aspect to Mashatile's performance over the past year. In fairness, the role of deputy president is famously meaningless, which is what allowed Cyril Ramaphosa to skate out of the State Capture years virtually unscathed. But even taking into account the very low bar for this role, it's difficult to see how Mashatile has been a value-add. The two most noteworthy things that have involved Mashatile during this period have both been negative. First, there was the ' assassination attempt ' on the DP in April, during which his car was allegedly shot at – an incident shrouded in mystery because it appears that almost nobody in the ANC believes it actually happened, with the conspiracy theory there being that Mashatile was hoping for a Donald Trump-style post-assassination popularity surge. If so, it didn't work; one of the only groups to express real concern was the EFF leadership, which is so strange in itself that it greatly fortified theories that a Mashatile presidency would see the EFF elevated to hitherto unrealised heights of political power. The second was the revelation from an Action SA Parliamentary question that Mashatile and his wife had somehow managed to spend more than R900,000 on accommodation for a three-night stay in Japan in March. Mashatile is not beating corruption allegations any time soon. Within the GNU, meanwhile, his role has seemed to be largely shit-stirring: he has made menacing noises towards the DA on a number of occasions, but it appears his bark doesn't come with much bite. – Rebecca Davis Thembi Simelane Thembi Simelane should not be in Cabinet. Her tenure as Justice Minister was rendered untenable by Daily Maverick and News24's reporting on corruption allegations against her, and she was shuffled to Human Settlements by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December 2024 instead of being suspended, as she should have been. Since then, Simelane's personal woes have clearly been distracting her. There have been further corruption allegations from the past involving an Eskom contractor; the DA laid criminal charges against her; and her romantic partner was arrested for his own corruption charges. She inherited a dysfunctional Human Settlements department from her predecessor Mmamoloko Kubayi, whose approach can best be summed up as 'see no evil, hear no evil'. DA MP Luyolo Mphithi has tried, mostly in vain, to draw attention to what he has termed a 'catastrophic collapse of governance across several housing entities' falling under Simelane's control – among them the National Housing Finance Corporation, as revealed by Daily Maverick. Simelane has shown almost zero appetite to investigate what is going on under her own roof. There is no plausible justification for her presence in the executive. – Rebecca Davis Angie Motshekga Evaluating Minister Angie Motshekga's time as the head of our Department of Defence is difficult. Not because there's nothing to analyse, but more that it's a smorgasbord of ineptitude. The only thing we can be thankful for is that she's only mismanaging our sovereign defence capability, rather than the minds of our young learners. Motshekga has not only failed to reverse the inexorable decline of a defence force in dire need of a strong leader, she has failed to demonstrate how the defence force can, if managed properly, be a major force for public good. I wrote in July last year that the first and most important thing she could do was to start a major defence review. Instead, the minister has fêted military suitors from the world over, overseen the induction of air force cadets, who have very little in the way of serviceable airframes to fly, and generally dithered about. But by a country mile, the most egregious lapse in basic leadership has been her colossal bungling of our SAMIDRC retreat at the hands of Rwandan-backed rebels. Not only has Motshekga outright lied in parliamentary committees about their role, the fact that our troops languished under M23 lock and key for months without any useful communication from the DOD is inexcusable. Correction – the DOD was quick to note which golf days had or had not been cancelled. – John Stupart Gayton McKenzie One of the most recent ministers of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, was accused of being too reactive in the role. To the point where he earned the nickname ' minister of condolences and congratulations '. Current Minister Gayton McKenzie is the opposite, to his detriment at times. On a few occasions, McKenzie has been found placing the cart before the horse – something he has been criticised for even by his department's oversight committee. Other critics of McKenzie have highlighted his blatant xenophobia. It is a tool he has used to his political advantage as leader of the Patriotic Alliance, but he has struggled to eradicate it when wearing his ministerial hat, despite heading a department that is a conduit for national unity. A perfect example of McKenzie's overzealousness is the situation around the video assistant referee (VAR). The minister is a staunch supporter of the technology, which he believes will improve the quality of officiating in South African soccer. It will cost millions of rands to roll out and maintain. But McKenzie's department will help the financially strapped South African Football Association acquire the technology and train its officials to operate VAR. A master of populist politics, McKenzie knows that soccer is the most popular sport in South Africa. The implementation of VAR will earn him countless plaudits from the masses. – Yanga Sibembe Gwede Mantashe Gwede Mantashe's crowning achievement for 2025 should be the online mining cadastre, which is supposed to go live in June and then be rolled out to other provinces after this 'test drive'. After years of needless delays under Mantashe's watch, the mining sector is waiting with bated breath to see how this rolls. The lack of a functioning cadastre – an online portal that displays a country's mineral wealth while allowing companies to apply for mining and prospecting rights – has long been seen as a deterrent to mining investment, leading to massive application backlogs. While the mining sector has cautiously welcomed this development, it has been jolted by the Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDP), which seeks to further entrench onerous BEE provisions. In June, Mantashe did a U-turn and removed the BEE requirements in the draft for exploration companies, which have always been excluded on this front – a sign that he is not completely tone deaf to industry concerns. He also has his brand new South African National Petroleum Company – the department has been renamed the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources– but given the ANC's track record on SOEs, few expect it to be solvent for long. – Ed Stoddard DM
Daily Maverick
7 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Ramaphosa extols green hydrogen as future driver of Africa-wide growth
President Ramaphosa on Thursday championed green hydrogen as Africa's future, but can the continent's ambitious dream overcome the reality of prohibitive costs and a risk-averse international financial regimen? 'Africa is uniquely positioned to become a major player in green hydrogen because it has abundant renewable resources that manifest themselves in high solar irradiation, strong winds and hydropower potential,' said President Cyril Ramaphosa. He was speaking at what was once called the South Africa Green Hydrogen Summit, now positioned as the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit, in Cape Town on Thursday. 'The vast land of our continent lends itself to large-scale renewable energy projects. We are therefore perfectly placed to leverage the global shift towards cleaner energy sources for our collective advantage as the entire continent. 'Green hydrogen is a way to marry our continent's mineral riches with our renewable energy endowments to decarbonise particularly heavy industries, to create jobs, to stimulate investment and to unlock inclusive growth across the various borders,' said Ramaphosa. Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a process called electrolysis. This hydrogen can then be used as an emission-free energy source and carrier for applications such as fuel cells or industrial processes, and is seen as being key to decarbonising 'hard-to-abate' or 'hard-to-electrify' sectors such as long-haul transport, chemicals, and iron and steel. Green hydrogen is of particular interest in South Africa because of the country's strategic advantages. The independent non-profit economic research institution Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies says that 'South Africa's rich endowment of ideal weather conditions for solar and wind-power generation, technological capabilities around the Fischer-Tropsch process, and access to platinum resources place the country at an advantage for developing the hydrogen value chain and being a key supplier into the global hydrogen market.' Ramaphosa noted that more than 52 large-scale green hydrogen projects had been launched across the continent, including in South Africa. 'To date, South Africa has invested more than R1.5-billion in our Hydrogen South Africa programme,' he said. Yet despite the President's bullishness, the reality of green hydrogen projects in South Africa and beyond paints a more complex picture. Daily Maverick reported in April that Namibia's HyIron Oshivela plant successfully produced green hydrogen for the first time, giving South Africa's neighbour to the northwest the lead in its implementation of its green hydrogen-related plans. South Africa's Hydrogen Society Roadmap, adopted in 2021, outlines an ambitious vision. While the initiative — which includes plans for a Hydrogen Valley industrial cluster and the Boegoebaai project in the Northern Cape — is substantial on paper, its implementation has lagged significantly behind Namibia's. Pilot project A pilot project in Sasolburg is producing green hydrogen for domestic use, and the Koega green ammonia project in the Eastern Cape is 'at an advanced planning stage' for four additional flagship hydrogen projects, said Ramaphosa on Thursday. Beyond suboptimal implementation, there are also complications, which Ramaphosa duly acknowledged. Chief among them: cost. 'We are very much alive to the reality that green hydrogen production faces a number of challenges. There is the cost factor. Capital intensity and the high costs of financing are significant barriers, as is the cost of green hydrogen relative to other energy sources such as natural gas, for instance,' he said. Earlier this year, Daily Maverick was told that the ambitious plan to produce 'green steel' in the Freeport Saldanha industrial zone had been shelved, with Sasol and ArcelorMittal citing high costs and shifting priorities. Globally, the steel industry is responsible for roughly 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, which is about 8% of global emissions. When the conventional coal-fired blast furnaces are replaced with ones that run on carbon emission-free green hydrogen, the steel that is produced is, accordingly, considered green steel. The difficulties in realising green hydrogen projects are shared internationally. A study published in the journal Nature Energy earlier this year, which tracked 190 projects over three years, found that by 2023 only 7% of the announced green hydrogen production globally had been realised. A large part of the reason is renewable energy and electrolyser costs. Lack of competitiveness A Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research researcher and the lead author of that study, Adrian Odenweller, as well as co-author Falko Ueckerdt, said: 'Green hydrogen will continue to have difficulties meeting the high expectations in the future due to a lack of competitiveness.' The Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit in the Presidency and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa previously confirmed as much with Daily Maverick, explaining: 'Currently, grey hydrogen (from steam reformation of methane gas) costs $1.50/kg to produce. Green hydrogen produced via electrolysis of water using renewables-generated electricity costs $5 to $6/kg. Approximately 60% of this cost is for electricity, 30% for electrolysers and 10% for transport, storage and other externalities. 'So, a reduction in price depends very much on renewable electricity generating costs falling still further. Additionally, the appropriate pricing of carbon taxes is another factor that will contribute to project viability. 'The costs of green electricity and of electrolysers will reduce, but not overnight. Furthermore, penalties in key global markets on goods produced using non-green technologies are ramping up over the next decade. We can anticipate that the right price point will be reached within the next few years. 'Based on the downward price trajectory of renewable energy and electrolyser costs, it has been projected that South Africa will reach $1.50/kg by 2037.' Speaking at the summit on Thursday, Energy and Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said, 'Africa's choice is whether to be a passive site of resource extraction or a proactive architect of the green energy economy. 'With the right policy framework, investment enablers and regional coordination, green hydrogen can and must be [the] backbone of a new African industrial era. 'South Africa's approach to green hydrogen is not aspirational, it is deliberate, structured and already under way. As a country, we have a clear choice to develop hydrogen not just as a climate response but as a catalyst for reindustrialisation, economic transformation, regional competitiveness and energy sovereignty,' said Ramokgopa. DM
