ActionSA’s Athol Trollip Slams DA’s John Steenhuisen for Not Accounting for Travelling Expenses

• ActionSA's Parliamentary caucus leader Athol Trollip criticised the Democratic Alliance's president and Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen
• He accused him of refusing to disclose his travelling expenses and treating his parliamentary duties with disdain
• He also slammed Patriotic Alliance president and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, for refusing to be open about how much he spends to travel

With over seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News, Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist, offered insights into South African politics, national, provincial and local governance, the Government of National Unity, political parties and Parliament.

WESTERN CAPE — ActionSA's parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, has intensified his calls for John Steenhuisen, the Minister of Agriculture and Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, to account for his travel expenses. He accused him of not being transparent about how much he spent travelling as a minister.

What did Trollip say about Steenhuisen?

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According to Sunday World, Trollip said Steenhuisen and Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, Patriotic Alliance president, have not divulged their travel expenses. He said the party is preparing legal action to challenge ministers' exorbitant spending on transport.

He said ActionSA exposed that Government of National Unity ministers had wasted almost R180 million in travelling expenses since the Government of National Unity was formed in June 2024.

Politicians dodging ActionSA's questions: Trollip

Trollip also said that he raised concerns with the Speaker of Parliament, Thoko Didiza, who was appointed after the 2024 general elections. He said out of the 121 questions the party asked in Parliament, 86 remain unanswered. He also accused members of the executive of responding with poor-quality answers or not responding at all.

"The disregard with which members of the executive treat responses to parliamentary questions, whether through poor-quality answers, malicious compliance, or the complete absence of a reply, reveals an executive that undermines the very mechanism through which members of parliament are constitutionally empowered to hold it accountable," he pointed out.

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South Africans discuss Trollip's take

Netizens commenting on Sunday World's Facebook post discussed Trollip's views.

Kabelo Moshoeu said:

"All these politicians are the same. There's no one better. As soon as they see our money, they think it's theirs to splash."

Banda Baza said:

"They were acting like they don't care about ministerial perks. Now they are doing the same thing they complained about."

Lindani Zulu said:

"He doesn't fail to answer. He doesn't care. They don't care."

Labius Matsobe said:

"how many people from other parties have travelled with our tax and failed to explain? So they renovated their houses, expensive cameras, some get expensive alcohol and meat from Busasa and fail to appear before the Zondo Commission."

Gerhard de Jager said:

"John, come up with some lame explanation. It might confuse them."

EFF accuse Gayton McKenzie of abusing taxpayers' money

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In a related article, Briefly News reported that the Economic Freedom Fighters slammed McKenzie and accused him of wasting taxpayers' money to travel to the Olympics. This is despite McKenzie disclosing how the money was spent.

McKenzie spent over R800,000 travelling during his stay at the Olympics in France last year. The Red Berets said he violated his oath of office and said he abused his power.

Source: Briefly News