Newly appointed transport minister Sbu Ndebele has decided to hand back the S500 Mercedes Benz given to him by roadwork's contractors after the big hullaballoo, but the group of contractors, Vukuzakhe, have offered to give the car to one of his family members. The minister has however insisted that the gifts be sold and the money be used to set up a trust fund for other emerging contractors.
Sbu decided to hand back the car after opposition parties and analysts intensified their call for him to return the present as “it constitutes a conflict of interest”. Yes the contractors do receive a bulk of their work from the transport department, but I don't think that this necessary means that any future contracts awarded to Vukuzakhe would be based on the gifts and not their ability to deliver.
He was presented with the gifts during a function to honour him in PMB over the weekend. The party had apparently been planned a while ago, when neither he nor the contractors were aware that he would become the minister of transport. (I'm not too sure that I believe this part, but nonetheless a gift is a gift and it should not be given back)
He was quoted in the Mercury saying: “I must emphasise, I never knew about these gifts, never solicited them and never expected them. When this whole function was mooted by the emerging contractors, nobody knew where I was going, or whether I would b appointed minister of transport,” he said, adding that he had no personal or private business interest with Vukuzakhe.
Personally I wouldn't have given it back, maybe the two cows and the plasma TV, but a R1 million car, never shame. It was a gift after all, and he did declare in writing, all his gifts to parliament, the president and the ANC secretary general.
Not saying that Sbu is squeaky clean, but I respect him- he is one of the few politicians who has hardly been associated with political or any controversy. He served the province with distinction when he was the MEC of transport here in KZN and during his five year term as the premier.
I don't see how the gifts would have been a conflict of interest and I'm sure wherever he is, his wife or his kids are very angry with him for returning the car.
He is however going to keep the plasma TV, glassware and cutlery. please! he can afford to buy that for himself, even I can afford a plasma-kanti what are the perks of being a minister? Maybe that's why I'm not a politician .....
So what do you think? Do you think he should have kept the car, or do you applaud his decision to return it? Do you think if he had kept it, it would have created the wrong perception about him and his department? what woudl you have done?
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