Another government minister has been caught out living the high life at the expense of taxpayers.
SA Communist Party leader and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has a lot to say about greed and sloth.
Last year, on the eve of the first Mandela Day, he called for a reaffirmation of Mandela's values to "roll back the greed, corruption and selfishness of capitalism".
Today, the Saturday Star can reveal that Nzimande spent time at one of South Africa's most luxurious hotels, the Mount Nelson - known affectionately as The Nellie - in Cape Town, where a basic "superior" room costs R6 140 a night, all the way through to a luxury suite at R13 240.
Nzimande would have received preferential government rates on his room, but it would still have cost taxpayers almost R3 000 a night to put him up.
In October, he warned students at the University of KwaZulu Natal's campus that "it cost the government a lot of money for you to be here. We are very concerned about lazy students. Our institutions have students who study permanently."
His spokeswoman, Ranjeni Munusamy, confirmed at the time that Nzimande was "opposed to any form of unnecessary extravagance. Minister Nzimande does not condone wasteful expenditure under any circumstances and stands firm in his condemnation of greed, corruption and selfishness in society."
Yesterday, Munusamy confirmed that the communist leader stayed at the Mount Nelson Hotel for 15 days, between June and October last year.
"While Parliament was in session, Minister Nzimande had to stay at various hotels in Cape Town, depending on the availability of rooms and compliance with reduced government rates. (Nzimande) stayed at the Mount Nelson a total of 15 days at a total cost of R40 675," she said.
Last night, a senior staffer at the hotel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "This minister could have paid R2 600, because when you have a title, you tend to get a discount. Sometimes celebrities pay as little as R1 500 a night as they tend to attract other business by being there."
Although Nzimande was appointed to the government in May last year, he managed to move into his official residence six months later, in October.
Munusamy said he was staying at the Mount Nelson and other hotels because the Department of Public Works had not finished refurbishing his official residence.
Nzimande and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda were criticised last year for splurging millions on luxury top-of-the-range BMW sedans.
But it is Nyanda who has come under the most fire. He spent almost a year at the Mount Nelson and other hotels, becoming one of the high-profile ANC targets of the SACP as the communists and their trade union allies rail at what they called their rivals' "crass materialism" and "conspicuous consumption".
The Saturday Star understands that some in the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) questioned why the spotlight was being consistently placed on Nyanda and not on Nzimande. The matter reached the stage where a senior ANC official raised the matter about Nzimande and the unashamedly colonial Mount Nelson at the last NEC meeting.
The communications minister recently revealed in a written parliamentary reply to a question by Cope MP Juli Kilian that he had spent R500 000 living in Cape Town's top hotels between April last year and March this year.
On its wasteful expenditure monitor released on Thursday, the Democratic Alliance said President Jacob Zuma's administration had spent R1.5 billion on fancy cars, luxury hotels, World Cup tickets and lavish parties over the past year.
While Zuma and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had called for belt-tightening, this instruction appears to have gone unheeded by some ministers, their departments and state-owned entities, said DA MP Lindiwe Mazibuko.
The DA introduced its monitor to track government expenditure after Zuma expanded his cabinet with the introduction of new departments and the splitting of others last year.
Nzimande is no stranger to controversy, or the apparent anomaly of being both the country's senior communist and a cabinet minister.
Last year, during the period he was staying at the Mount Nelson, he said: "I don't think I've abandoned my moral leadership. I am still a communist..."
