E450 000 GIFT FOR EACH MINISTER

One of the Cabinet ministers’ BMW X5 SUVs parked.

MBABANE – The Times SUNDAY can now reveal that Cabinet ministers will not pay a cent for their E800 000 BMW X5 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) when they leave office in about 16 months.

The 22 posh Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) cost E800 000 each.
Former ministers in Senator Sibusiso Shongwe and Gideon Dlamini have driven these German machines before but will not get the chance to take these cars home after 2018.

The matter of Magobetane Mamba, former Minister of Public Service, is still being discussed. He was relieved of his duties on medical grounds, not because of misconduct, as alleged in the cases of the other ministers.
More than E20 million was spent on the vehicles when they were bought in 2013. What should be noted is that according to South Africa’s Car Magazine, the present book value of the BMWs is about E450 000 which means they could be valued at about E400 000 next year, when the politicians vacate office.

The politicians will take these vehicles home, courtesy of the ever-controversial Finance Circular No.2 of 2013.
Even though the circular provides that the politicians take the cars home at the end of their term of office, it says they should be sold to them at a discount, taking into account issues of depreciation. However, government has decided that they buy them at zero cost. This follows a price discounting method that has been adopted to facilitate the sale of the vehicles.

According to the method, the vehicles’ value depreciates at 20 per cent per annum. This means that each year, the car becomes 20 per cent less in value. In five years, this will translate to 100 per cent, meaning they will be worth E0.00.
Makhosini Mndawe, Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport confirmed this.

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