Presidency spent R2.76m on car hire for one deputy minister in 11 months

According to IOL, the Presidency spent R2.76m hiring cars for deputy minister Kenny Morolong over an 11-month period roughly R250,000 a month while the minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, did not disclose her own travel costs to Parliament.

How the figure breaks down

According to IOL, Morolong’s car hire totalled R167,141 in the nine months from July 2024 to March 2025. That amount then rose during the following period, with car hire reported at R2,757,409 between April 2025 and February 2026.

Deputy ministers’ overall travel spending

According to IOL, the Presidency spent R10.5m on travel for the two deputy ministers and their staff between July 2024 and February 2026. Of that, R7.36m was accounted for by Morolong’s office and R3.14m by Nonceba Mhlauli’s office.

Morolong’s office

According to IOL, Morolong’s own travel cost was R1.34m in the first nine months and R3.71m in the subsequent 11 months, totalling R5.06m. Car hire made up R2.93m of the R4.54m spent on his whole office between April 2025 and February 2026.

According to IOL, Morolong’s staff also incurred substantial costs: subsistence and travel for his head of office amounted to R141,553 between July 2024 and March 2025, the head of office’s accommodation cost R374,318, and a receptionist’s car hire totalled R70,730 between April 2025 and February 2026.

Nonceba Mhlauli’s office

According to IOL, Mhlauli’s travel cost R788,075 in the first period and R1.2m in the second, a combined R1.99m, with car hire making up R1.33m of that total. The reply listed the purpose of her travel as ministry outreach programmes in various provinces, naming Kimberley and Upington.

What Ntshavheni told Parliament

According to IOL, minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni did not disclose her own travel costs in the parliamentary reply and said part of the question had been referred to Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

“The travels that are shared on social media platforms are those that are public in nature,” Ntshavheni wrote in the reply. “The information provided to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence is for all the trips undertaken.”

Format of the reply

According to IOL, the parliamentary reply did not list destinations, dates or a cost for each trip. Instead, each person’s costs were provided as a single total for each period, set against a list of events.