 
CHOPPING DOWN THE WRONG TREEI find it really strange that the honourable member of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), S’bu Ngidi queried the honourable member of the African National Congress, Dr Meshack Hadebe’s mode of transportation to a funeral at Izingolweni this past Sunday. As a Member of the Executive Council in KwaZulu-Natal in charge of road safety it is within my responsibility to ensure that we are all safe on the roads. In the unfortunate situation of crashes that cost people’s lives, especially in a situation such as this one where six people past away nearly two weeks ago, I would normally visit the bereaved families and sometimes attend the funeral services to lend our support in their time of need. This past weekend, I couldn’t attend the said funeral, as I was busy with the African Renaissance Festival in Durban. As a result, I requested my Head of Department, Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa to attend the funeral on my behalf. Dr Mbanjwa had a prior arranged meeting set with the small business entrepreneurs that same afternoon at 13h30. Therefore, it was going to be physically impossible to drive to the funeral and back and still make it in time for the meeting in Pietermaritzburg. Dr Hadebe, who was in Pietermaritzburg on the Sunday morning in question, was going to represent the transport portfolio committee at the funeral. It made sense for him to fly in the same helicopter with Dr Mbanjwa that was chartered for this purpose. The helicopter was not hired for Dr Hadebe. He merely got a lift that in fact saved the province the money he would have otherwise claimed for using his car for work. In fact, by making use of the helicopter the state effected savings of more than one thousand and five hundred rands as well as ensured the safety Dr Mbanjwa and Dr Hadebe. Giving lifts to members of the legislature on aircrafts to attend to work related business is not a new practise set in motion by the department of transport. On several occasions the honourable Premier of this province has flown to Cape Town on state sponsored flights to attend meetings there and he has taken a few MPLs with him. It is therefore political bankruptcy for the IFP to cry foul on an incident such as this.
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