Taxpayers footed an accommodation bill of over R950,000 for Deputy President Paul Mashatile and his spouse Humile during their recent visit to Japan.
Mashatiles four-day working visit took place between 16 and 19 March 2025.
Mashatiles huge travel and accommodation billThe Deputy President revealed the trips cost in a reply to a recent question by ActionSA member of Parliament Lerato Ngobeni .
Eight officials from his office accompanied him. The total cost, including flights, accommodation, ground transport, laundry services and restaurant services, amounted to R2,319,138.
Flight tickets for Mashatile and Humile cost 117,518 each, while their accommodation bill came to a whopping R956,057. They further incurred a combined R150,952 in ground transport costs.
In his reply, Mashatile said the visit was of strategic importance as it focused on strengthening political , economic and social areas of cooperation between South Africa and Japan.
Japan is South Africa's fourth largest trading partner. Therefore, a critical focus of the Deputy President's visit was on strengthening bilateral economic relations, he wrote.
However, the trips cost has sparked outrage on social media, including from ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip.
This kind of profligacy is not only hard to imagine it's a slap in the face of poor unemployed South Africans, he wrote on X on Wednesday 4 June.
This GNU government has shown no inclination to reform itself from previous self-indulgent administrations. It's time for change and real action to Fix SA.