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Members of Parliament remain some of the luckiest people around, and the more power they wield the more gifts they attract.
Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests finally published the 2016 register in which MPs disclose their financial interests. The annual register is normally published towards the end of the relevant year but the resignations of the Registrar of Members Interests last year and another long-serving official of the committee meant delays for the process. The deadline for MPs to submit their disclosures was August 31 2016. While a majority of MPs met that deadline, 55 did not.
Even after the deadline was extended to September 21 2016, there were 17 MPs who still failed to submit disclosures.
Three of them had good reasons – two were new in Parliament and had only been sworn in as MPs in September 2016 and one had been “seriously ill”.
The remaining 14 who subsequently declared their financial interests, albeit after the deadline, now face an investigation for non-compliance. Unlike in recent years, the committee would not release the names of the offending MPs until they had been informed that they were under investigation.
A large number of MPs had “nothing to disclose” but property, from vast pieces of land to residential homes and holiday homes
For those who made the disclosures, the register makes for very interesting reading.
International Relations and Corporation’s Maite Nkoana-Mashabane declared almost three pages of gifts she received in 2016. You name it, she received it – from bath salts, body butters and mirrors to jars of honey, whiskies, wines, a dress and a fur coat among her long list of declared gifts. Almost all of them were from ambassadors or embassies, including a custom Pickard China hand-painted platter featuring an image of the White House, which was given to her by the former US president Barack Obama.
Another traveller, albeit a local one, Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom disclosed that he received perfume from AK Saeed to the value of R3500.
Shares, directorships, gifts, land and property – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has it all in bucketloads and it reads like a movie script.
If the number of gifts received is a measure of popularity, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is not as popular as his Cabinet colleagues. He received a gift pack of health soaps and scented candles from Koos Bekker and family, a box of chocolates from Nestle, a bottle of Johnnie Walker and wine, bouquet of flowers, a fruit basket and Iranian culture gifts. But he declared an entire page of shares including at BHP Billiton, Impala Platinum Holdings, SABMiller PLC, Sasol, Naspers, Woolworths and Spar, among many other well-established businesses.
Home Affairs’ Malusi Gigaba declared scores of nice things from gold pots, suits, cuff links, bedside lamps to a children’s book and Johnnie Walker Black whisky.
In fact, the Johnnie Walker Black is among the most popular gifts given to South African MPs, with some putting its value at R300, some at R450 and others at R4000.
While Gigaba is known for his sharp dress sense, State Security Minister David Mahlobo wins the bling stakes. He received a diamond ring, diamond watch, diamond cuff links, a diamond pen and a diamond neck chain worth R28 238 from Saudi Arabia. An “Egypt General” gave him an Asfour Crystal statue (worth about R2000) and a pyramid silver plate worth about R1000.
From the opposition benches, among his list of declared gifts, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane received a cash gift of R25 000 from Alpha – a Christian Mission Organisation in London. Maimane previously declared a salary from his church where he was a preacher but this benefit does not appear in the latest register. He told City Press last year that he had cut down on preaching in church.
The DA leader, who is known for flaunting his happy socks, revealed that he has a six-month socks sponsorship from Nic Harry, whereby three pairs of socks worth R691 are sent to him on a monthly basis. The DA leader was also given a Fabiani suit, shirt and tie valued at R6000.
Impressive as that may be, it has nothing on the gift African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe received from his wife – a R16 500 suit and R2 750 from his daughter. Meshoe, a reverend, also disclosed that he receives a salary and a free lunch from his church.
According to the register, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, like fellow fighters in his party, received no gifts at all in the period under review. Malema only disclosed that he was a trustee in four trusts.
While ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu has been getting compliments for speaking against ANC leadership he, like Malema, is not getting any gifts.
Some of the interesting disclosures include a “travel bag from Avbob” which was a gift to Basic Education’s Angie Motshekga.
ANC MP Mandla Mandela, the chief of Mvezo recently accused of building his own Nkandla in Mvezo outside Mthatha, had “nothing to disclose” under the “land and property” section of the register.
Wines, whisky, communication devices, jazz festival tickets and livestock are the most popular gifts to give to MPs, with telecommunications companies proving to be the most generous when it comes to sponsoring MPs.
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