---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Patrick Craven <[email protected]> Date: 2009/9/7 Subject: [COSATU Press] COSATU says No to ministers' expensive cars To: [email protected]
*[image: COSATUpng.png]*** *COSATU says No to ministers’ expensive cars* The Congress of South African Trade Unions congratulates Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on his decision to buy a modest Lexus car for R557 673 and an Audi A8 for R590 500. This is a welcome decision to respond to the public anger at the unnecessary expenditure of up to R1.4 million per vehicle on cars for other government ministers. This criticism applies to all those who have purchased these top-of-the-range BMWs without exception. The federation agrees that the procurement of official vehicles for ministers must always take account of safety and security issues and we also stress that the ministers concerned have done nothing illegal but have complied with the requirements of the government rule book. The problem is that the rules themselves, contained in an apartheid-era hand book, need to be changed, and welcomes reports that the government is now reviewing them. If ministers are allowed to purchase expensive cars at taxpayers’ expense it gives an impression that they do not care about the message this opulence gives to the poor. Spending so much money on vehicles is a slap in the face of the unemployed and people living in shanty towns. It gives politics a bad name and encourages the view that government office is a stepping stone to quick and easy personal wealth. COSATU calls on ministers who have used the government rule-book to buy themselves R1-plus vehicles to kindly return them and replaces them with the kind of modest cars bought by Comrade Pravin Gordhan and others. The federation demands that government adopts a new set of rules based on the revolutionary ethos and morality of the ANC-led liberation movement, so that in future minsters are seen to be setting an example of promoting the public interest and not their own selfish interests. Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson) Congress of South African Trade Unions 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets Braamfontein, 2017 P.O. Box 1019 Johannesburg, 2000 SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24 Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667 Cell: 0828217456 E-Mail: [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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