DA may update policy on members' international work trips with partners

The Democratic Alliance (DA) may be updating its policy on international work trips with partners after Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson was recently under fire for spending R350,000 on a work trip to Brazil with his partner.

While the ministerial handbook does make provision for Cabinet members to travel with their significant others, opposition parties have criticised the DA for doing something it used to rally against when it was in the opposition.

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The DA’s federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, said the party has its own internal policy on international work trips.

Zille said Macpherson informed the party of his trip to Brazil but he didn’t say who he would be travelling with.

“Dean Macpherson applied under the DA’s travel policy to travel. There isn’t any field in the travel policy form that asks the question: ‘who you will be travelling with?’ or ‘will you be taking anyone?’.

“There isn’t that field in that form - maybe we going to have to look at putting a field of that kind in. I think the important thing is we must check the [ministerial] handbook. We don’t always have to meet the handbooks high standards; we can be more modest than that.”

Zille said it should never be a regular thing for DA ministers to travel on work trips with their partners or spouses.

“There is obviously a debate in the DA about it, there is no question about it but it’s not my job to come and discuss that job in public. Dean Macpherson is available; you may speak to him anytime and you can speak to the party leader at any time and anybody else.”

In February, Parliament released the names of ministers with the highest number of unanswered parliamentary questions, with Macpherson being the biggest offender having failed to respond to 26 questions posed to him.