DEMOCRATIC Alliance MP David Maynier has vowed to continue asking questions about the R1.2bn spy satellite despite a public rebuke by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Last week during parliamentary questions to the security cluster of ministers Mr Maynier was criticised as being "irresponsible" for raising the issue of the spy satellite as the project was classified.
The satellite was initially scheduled to be launched on February 27 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch dates have repeatedly been postponed and the satellite launch is now scheduled for December 18.
Mr Maynier had used a supplementary question to ask Ms Mapisa-Nqakula about the spy satellite that is being built by a Russian company, but she refused to respond. This followed a formal request from the minister to National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete to have Mr Maynier’s question about the spy satellite removed from the question paper.
Ms Mapisa-Nqakula said she would answer questions about the satellite if she was asked to brief Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, which meets behind closed doors and whose members are required to take an oath of confidentiality. The other option is the joint standing committee on defence, which can choose to meet in secret.
Mr Maynier has been pushing for answers on the Kondor-E spy satellite project since last year.
Meanwhile, Ms Mapisa-Nqakula is refusing to answer parliamentary questions about the luxury air travel of chief of the defence force Gen Solly Shoke.
It has also emerged that Defence Secretary Sam Gulube has asked for the Department of Defence to be allowed to deviate from the cost containment measures announced by then finance minister Pravin Gordhan last year and repeated last month by successor Nhlanhla Nene.
Last Wednesday written questions by Mr David Maynier about Gen Shoke’s alleged R100,000 first-class flight to Malaysia, which were left unanswered, were transferred for oral reply in the house. They still went unanswered.
Mr Maynier said it was clear that Ms Mapisa-Nqakula was shielding Gen Shoke from a "full-blown travel expenses scandal in Parliament".
The questions he had posed to the minister probed excessive expenditure on a trip by Gen Shoke to attend the Defence Service Asia exhibition in Malaysia in April and excessive expenditure on Gen Shoke’s international air travel between 2011 and 2014.
"Gen Shoke should be leading belt-tightening measures in the defence force. However all the evidence suggests that he is resisting belt-tightening measures as requested by National Treasury," Mr Maynier said.
Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. Picture: SOWETAN
DEMOCRATIC Alliance MP David Maynier has vowed to continue asking questions about the R1.2bn spy satellite despite a public rebuke by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Last week during parliamentary questions to the security cluster of ministers Mr Maynier was criticised as being "irresponsible" for raising the issue of the spy satellite as the project was classified.
The satellite was initially scheduled to be launched on February 27 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch dates have repeatedly been postponed and the satellite launch is now scheduled for December 18.
Mr Maynier had used a supplementary question to ask Ms Mapisa-Nqakula about the spy satellite that is being built by a Russian company, but she refused to respond. This followed a formal request from the minister to National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete to have Mr Maynier’s question about the spy satellite removed from the question paper.
Ms Mapisa-Nqakula said she would answer questions about the satellite if she was asked to brief Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, which meets behind closed doors and whose members are required to take an oath of confidentiality. The other option is the joint standing committee on defence, which can choose to meet in secret.
Mr Maynier has been pushing for answers on the Kondor-E spy satellite project since last year.
Meanwhile, Ms Mapisa-Nqakula is refusing to answer parliamentary questions about the luxury air travel of chief of the defence force Gen Solly Shoke.
It has also emerged that Defence Secretary Sam Gulube has asked for the Department of Defence to be allowed to deviate from the cost containment measures announced by then finance minister Pravin Gordhan last year and repeated last month by successor Nhlanhla Nene.
Last Wednesday written questions by Mr David Maynier about Gen Shoke’s alleged R100,000 first-class flight to Malaysia, which were left unanswered, were transferred for oral reply in the house. They still went unanswered.
Mr Maynier said it was clear that Ms Mapisa-Nqakula was shielding Gen Shoke from a "full-blown travel expenses scandal in Parliament".
The questions he had posed to the minister probed excessive expenditure on a trip by Gen Shoke to attend the Defence Service Asia exhibition in Malaysia in April and excessive expenditure on Gen Shoke’s international air travel between 2011 and 2014.
"Gen Shoke should be leading belt-tightening measures in the defence force. However all the evidence suggests that he is resisting belt-tightening measures as requested by National Treasury," Mr Maynier said.
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