Deputy President David Mabuza says he goes to Russia for medical treatment because doctors there understand his medical condition.

Speaking to Sowetan on the sidelines of his door-to-door election campaign for the ANC, Mabuza said it was his fourth trip to that country for medical treatment because the Russians know how to treat a person who had been poisoned.

The healthy-looking Mabuza said he was still under treatment after he was poisoned at his birthday party in 2015.

"I know you are interested to know how did I get to Russia again. OK, I paid for myself.

"I booked a flight. As a deputy president I don't cease to be a deputy president every where.

So wherever I go there are people who are paid to guard me."

He said the Russian government had received him and he was treated at a state hospital. "They've got medical history of my illness, so its only appropriate to go to people who know what went wrong with my body.

"This doesn't mean that I don't have confidence in our facilities," he said.

Mabuza was grilled in parliament for using the controversial Gupta family-owned plane when he first left the country in 2015 for Russia. He told parliament he didn't know it belonged to the Guptas because he was too ill at the time.