This excessiveness has occurred under the watch of Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini (pictured), in the same financial year in which she has claimed that social grants on the poverty line of R753 are “enough” and has on numerous occasions booked herself into the luxurious Oyster Box hotel in Umhlanga.

At a time when millions of South Africans are facing starvation, and the ANC is stubbornly refusing to make above-inflation increases to social grants – as requested by the DA – outrageous travel and subsistence expenditure is a slap in the face of so many poor South Africans struggling to make a living.

Despite written questions asking for a breakdown of the travel costs, hotel costs, VIP cars and size of delegations by the Minister and the Deputy Minister in the previous financial year, the Minister only accounted for R2.8 million of the R12 million spent on overseas trips.

Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, made it clear in his presentation of the Budget earlier this year that the major area of reduced expenditure would be travel and subsistence. It would appear that Minister Dlamini is not only out of touch with the reality of social grant recipients, but also did not get Gordhan’s message.

When the Department’s Annual Report is presented to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development next week, the CFO and Ministers will have some tough questions to answer. If they cannot provide satisfactory responses, we will refer them to National Treasury, who must advise on which trips these millions were spent and by whom.