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Africa News
South Africa minister pressured into returning Mercedes (Roundup)
By DPA
May 19, 2009, 14:56 GMT
Johannesburg - South Africa's new Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele on Tuesday gave into overwhelming pressure to return a luxury Mercedes-Benz car he received from a group of road maintenance contractors.
'I have decided to voluntarily return the Mercedes-Benz and two head of cattle that I received at a function in Pietermaritzburg last Saturday,' Ndebele was quoted by SAPA news agency as telling a press conference in Cape Town.
Ndebele said the decision was his and that President Jacob Zuma, whose advice he sought on the matter, had told him he could keep the vehicle, provided he declared it to the cabinet and parliament. The Mercedes S500 is worth over 1 million rand (115,000 dollars).
He didn't return it immediately, he said, because 'in the culture of the majority of our people (black people), you don't do that. You don't throw the thing back in the face of people as if you are suddenly so important.'
Asked whether he regretting having to part with the car, Ndebele said that, as minister, he was entitled to have a car of that value to transport him anyway.
Ndebele was sworn in as transport minister just eight days ago, along with the rest of Zuma's cabinet.
After a successful stint at the same department in KwaZulu-Natal, where he championed the outsourcing of road maintenance to thousands of contractors in disadvantaged communities, his appointment was widely welcomed.
A week later, images of the smiling minister and his wife sitting in the open-top Mercedes he received from contractors at a farewell party in KwaZulu-Natal caused outrage.
'Give it back, Minister,' the Sowetan newspaper, the country's biggest daily, urged in a front-page headline Tuesday.
Ndebele insisted there was no conflict of interest, because he was leaving provincial politics.
The affair was seen as a litmus test for Zuma, who has vowed to take a tough line against graft in government.
The car had also contrasted with the African National Congress's election promises of a greater focus on the poor, leading the ANC's Communist and trade union allies to also demand the car be scrapped.
Ndebele said he would ask for the car and the two cattle to be sold and the funds to be used towards a training programme for emerging contractors.
