REFILWE MEKOA
The Northern Cape DA says Premier Sylvia Lucas must do the right thing and pay back the money she spent on fast-foods.
According to spokesperson Harold McGluwa, the money can help improve service delivery in the province. McGluwa was speaking during a protest of the premier’s alleged wasteful expenditure this morning in Kimberley.
Lucas was reported to have misused her official credit card to buy fast food and groceries of more than R53 000 in her first 10 weeks in office. McGluwa says it amounts to R759 per day spent by one person. The DA distributed R759 worth of bread to illustrate how many poor people could have benefitted from what Lucas had spent per day.
“The premier can only use her official state credit card when she is out of the province on an official business trip. We are looking at 40% of people in our province living in poverty and her response is scandalous to us when she wants to know how she would have eaten if she didn’t use tax payers’ money. Our province is in dire poverty and a lot of our people don’t even have money to buy a loaf of bread,” he says.
McGluwa says Lucas could have easily paid for her own food with her premier’s salary. He says her attitude is a slap in the face of 40% of the province’s people living in poverty. McGluwa says Lucas must apologise to the province and repay the money.
State funds must benefit people, and not government politicians. The DA has already called on the public protector to investigate. Premier Lucas should do the honourable thing and pay back the money she used.
