How our Minister splurges money

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (which includes Local Government), Sicelo Shiceka, has abused taxpayers' money to lead a lifestyle befitting a multimillionaire.

Official documents seen by the Sunday Times show Shiceka went on a spending spree almost immediately after being appointed to the cabinet in September 2008.

He spent:

* R335 000 flying first class with his personal assistant and staying in a five-star hotel to visit his girlfriend in prison in Switzerland;

* Another R32 000 to hire a chauffeur-driven limo for the prison visit;

* R640 000 in one year for Shiceka and a handful of staff to stay at the One & Only - of which, he admits, R280 000 was spent on him alone;

* R55 793 for a one-night stay at the One & Only during President Jacob Zuma's first State of the Nation address, justifying taking a sangoma with him by saying the man was his "father figure"; and

* More than R160 000 in eight months flying 10 family members - including his estranged wife and current girlfriend - around the country at taxpayers' expense.

The Sunday Times has established that he went to Switzerland in December 2008 to visit his then girlfriend, SAA air hostess Phumla Masilela, who was in jail in Switzerland on a drug-related offence, while pretending to be on an official visit "on World Cup duties".

The five-day trip to Switzerland to visit Masilela, who was locked up in the women's prison, Anstalten, in Hindelbank near the Swiss capital, Bern, cost taxpayers R367 000 in total.   Read the full report by clicking HERE.