Social Development’s R3m NYC trip was ‘actually modest’, Parliament hears

A presentation by Department of Social Development (DSD) Director-General Peter Netshipale on Thursday attempted to convince MPs that the money spent by officials on a New York trip earlier this year was both necessary and reasonable.

The trip, first exposed by the Sunday Times in August, saw more than R3-million spent on travel and accommodation for seven DSD officials, including Minister Sisisi Tolashe, to attend the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2025. The Sunday Times reported that the officials stayed at one of the “swankiest” Manhattan hotels.

Netshipale’s presentation to MPs, littered with typos, stated: “While R3-million appears significant domestically, in US dollar terms it is over USD 150,000”.

It continued: “Compared with the scale and reach of the platform, this expenditure is actually modest”.

One of the arguments Netshipale made for why the trip amounted to value for money was as follows:

“By engaging multiple countries and multilateral partners in one forum, South Africa avoided the much higher cost of arranging separate bilateral trips to those countries. For perspective, engaging with even five countries individually could far exceed the cost of one multilateral mission.”

DSD’s sole concessions to public outrage on this matter were to pledge to “endeavour to use indirect flights to save costs as they are usually cheaper” and to “endeavour where feasible to minimise the size of our delegation(s)”.

Opposition MPs were unanimous in their rejection of the presentation.

DA MP Alexandra Abrahams pointed out that the presentation gave no details as to the breakdown of flights and accommodation and also did not explain why the relevant officials had to go.

“I reject this presentation with the contempt it deserves,” Abrahams said – sentiments echoed by EFF and MK party MPs.

HR explanation number 1

Minister Tolashe’s task at the committee meeting was to explain some of the questionable hiring and firing decisions at the DSD recently exposed by Daily Maverick – such as the appointment of an unqualified 22-year-old to be her chief of staff.

Read more: Minister of Social Development Sisisi Tolashe keeps it in the family with new Chief of Staff

Without naming Daily Maverick, Tolashe said: “These reports contain false and to some extent unlawful allegations, which have the intention of causing damage to my reputation and dignity”.

Tolashe began with the report by Daily Maverick on the five-year contract given to Director General Peter Netshipale despite the fact that Cabinet only approved his appointment for one year.

Read more: Social development minister’s five-year contract to DG contradicts Cabinet and governance directives

This, she said, was a “clerical error, not an intentional act”.

The Minister claimed that a letter confirming Netshipale’s appointment “erroneously” mis-stated the term of his contract, and it has now been fixed.

“I did not subvert Cabinet’s decision, contrary to mischievous and misleading media reports,” Tolashe said.

She did not explain why the DSD told Parliament in April, in response to questioning from the DA’s Abrahams, that Netshipale’s contract was for five years.

Abrahams termed the minister’s explanation an “insult to our intelligence” and said that if the issue had not been taken up by the media, it would have led to further negative Auditor-General findings down the line.

HR explanation number 2

If Tolashe’s first explanation strained credulity, her second explanation shattered it entirely.

Dealing with the appointment of 22-year-old Lesedi Mabiletja as her chief of staff, she claimed that her former chief of staff, Zanele Simmons, had “betrayed her trust” by falsifying Mabiletja’s CV to smuggle her into the department.

She gave no explanation of what Simmons’ motivation could have been for this. The minister also did not mention the fact that, as exposed by Daily Maverick, Mabiletja is the niece of the minister’s favoured special adviser, Ngwako Kgatla.

Tolashe also did not explain why Mabiletja has since been placed on “precautionary suspension” with full pay, while Simmons was summarily dismissed. Simmons has indicated that she will take legal action.

One silver lining: Tolashe said that the Public Service Commission will investigate the issue.

HR explanation number 3

Turning to the issue of her special adviser, Tolashe addressed the allegations that she was protecting Kgatla from disciplinary proceedings over allegations that he accepted two government salaries at once.

“I referred the matter to the director-general, who sought legal advice,” Tolashe said.

This advice informed her that the DSD did not have authority to institute disciplinary proceedings against Kgatla because, as a special adviser to the Minister, he was not technically a DSD employee.

As a result, Tolashe said, she had referred the matter back to Kgatla’s previous employer, the Department of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, where she was minister at the time the alleged misconduct took place.

She did not explain what authority that department would have to discipline an employee who no longer worked there.

Daily Maverick has seen the legal opinion in question, which metadata reveals was drawn up on 29 September.

Tolashe did not explain why it took until September 2025, and media reports, to look into the issue of the allegations against Kgatla when, according to an email chain seen by Daily Maverick, the DSD’s top officials were made aware of the matter as early as November 2024.

Kgatla was conveniently not present at the committee meeting – which opposition MPs described as strange, given his status as the minister’s special adviser. 

The ANC MPs on the committee, meanwhile, went to bat for Tolashe and her department in a manner that bordered on comical.

“Don’t take things [from] the media,” MP Monyagabo Makgato urged her fellow parliamentarians.

On the topic of the R3-million New York trip presentation: “The report is fine”. DM