A decision by the Public Works and Infrastructure Department to host a networking dinner has not been met well.
It is stated that they department spent at least R132 000 to cater for guests at the event and it was seen as a networking dinner.
The dinner came after minister Sihle Zikalala has delivered his first ever budget speech.
This comes after government spending has in the past been castigated and criticized.
The department has defended the event, saying stakeholder engagement was a key competency component of the department and was in its annual performance plan.
One of the people who has come out guns blazing in the wake of the dinner is inkatha freedom party MP Sanele Zondo.
Zondo said he left soon after the speeches and he did not attend the dinner as he felt it was a total waste of taxpayers payers money.
“The gala dinner, as an example of spending so much public money with nothing to provide the people, is just one way of sucking up public funds.”
Zondo added that the justification given by the department was not justifiable enough.
The department said that they spent a minimal amount of their budget and they hired ordinary catering company.
Zondo added that there was nothing normal about catering if money was used.
He insisted that there was no need for the networking dinner as it was a repetition of the budget speech, nothing new by the minister, the deputy minister and the director-general.
Government has indicated the past been criticized for it’s spending. Gala dinner’s have been at the forefront of the critics.
