Two deputy ministers spent R6.4 million on car rentals, flights, accommodation, and travelling in one year

The Minister in the Presidency revealed that two deputy ministers in the department spent R6.40 million on travelling in the 2025/26 fiscal year.

The R6.4 million figure covered car rentals, accommodation, flights, and subsistence and travel costs for Deputy Ministers Nonceba Mhlauli and Kenneth Morolong, and their teams.

It is also significantly more than the R4.1 million these two deputies spent on travelling in the 2024/25 fiscal year.

Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, revealed these figures in response to a Parliamentary question from MP Dr Kgosi Letlape.

Letlape had asked the minister for a complete breakdown of all official travel for Ntshavheni and her deputy ministers since they assumed office on 3 July 2024.

In response to Letlape’s question, Ntshavheni revealed that Mhlauli’s travel costs in 2024/25 and 2025/26 totalled R3.14 million.

Morolong’s travel costs over that two-year period totalled R7.36 million.

The deputy ministers’ trips included ministry outreach programmes, stakeholder engagements, Imbizos, site visits, and awards ceremonies across the country.

The costs covered travel expenses related to the deputy minister and their support teams, including receptionists, private secretaries, and heads of office.

The most expensive cost in 2025/26 was car rentals, which totalled R876,607.03 for Mhlauli and R2.93 million for Morolong.

Over the two-year period, R3.27 million was spent on car rentals for Morolong and his team alone.

The Minister in the Presidency is an often-overlooked position in South Africa’s cabinet, tasked with overseeing state security, government communications, and national statistics.

Ntshavheni and her deputies have political responsibility for:

• The Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation
• Statistics South Africa
• The Government Communication and Information System
• The Media Development and Diversity Agency
• Brand South Africa
• The State Security Agency

Mhlauli was appointed Deputy Minister in the Presidency in June 2024, having previously served as Spokesperson for the Ministry in the Presidency from 2019 to 2023.

She was also the Head of Communications and Spokesperson for the ANC Caucus in Parliament from 2016 to 2019.

As a Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Mhlauli supports the department’s coordination, monitoring, and oversight functions.

Morolong’s reappointment as a Deputy Minister for the Ministry in the Presidency came in July 2024. He occupied the same role from March 2023 to June 2024.

He is specifically responsible for agencies such as Statistics South Africa and the Media Development and Diversity Agency.

The tables below show the travel costs for these two deputy ministers and their teams in 2024/25 to 2025/26.