Cape Town - Parliament has denied there has been pressure from any party to revise its travel policy for former Ministers and MPs, saying this has been in the making for years.
The official opposition said this week that it had mounted pressure on Parliament to change its travel policy allowing former ministers and MPs a scaled down number of free flights a year.
This led to speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo signing off on the new travel policy.
Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said former lawmakers would now be entitled to a certain number of flights a year with their spouses.
“Former Members of the Executive previously received single domestic business class flights per annum amounting to 48 for Ministers, 36 for Deputy Ministers, 24 for Spouses of Former Ministers, 18 for Spouses of former Deputy Ministers and 12 for Widows or Widowers of former Ministers or Deputy Ministers. The new policy allocates 12 single economy class air tickets per annum for all former Members, including former Executive Members and their spouses. The tickets are for domestic travel only,” said Mothapo.
Former lawmakers would now be entitled to free flights for a period of five years after they have left the national legislature. But they should have served a full term of five years in the legislature to receive the benefits.
The ex-legislators would have to use economy class to travel, said Mothapo.
“In the financial years 2015/16 to 2019/20, Parliament had spent a total of R46 124 000 on travel benefits of former Members of Parliament, including former Members of the Executive, R 7.426 million (2015/16), R 8.688 million (2016/17), R 7.934 million (2017/18), R 10.698 million (2018/19) and R 11.378 million (2019/20).
“Based on projections, applying the new policy provisions, and informed by assumptions on future utilisation and flight costs, the estimated reduction in expenditure over the next five years is R22m,” he added.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za