R10m used for flowers‚ gifts could have alleviated housing backlog: DA

16 July 2017 - 16:36
By Staff Reporter
Lindiwe Sisulu. PICTURE: SIBONGILE NGALWA
Lindiwe Sisulu. PICTURE: SIBONGILE NGALWA

The Democratic Alliance wants the Department of Human Settlements to explain why it spent more than R10 million on flowers and gifts for employees in the 2013-14 financial year.

The DA’s Solly Malatsi said this amount was revealed by human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu in reply to a DA question in Parliament.

“Minister Sisulu and her department need to explain why such an excessive amount of money was spent on gifts when it could have been used to address the housing backlog and could have built 100 RDP houses.

“She must also make public the full list of people who benefited from the R10 million‚” Malatsi said on Sunday.

He said the DA would submit further parliamentary questions to Sisulu.

He added that the DA would continue to hold public officials and state entities who mismanaged spending to account.