Dudu Myeni has taken 23 trips over three years paid for by the Mhlathuze Water Board costing a total of R678 761, says a report by the City Press.
Myeni is chair of the Mhlatuze Water Board. Her trips reportedly included R231 631 for a trip to Germany, including accommodation at a five-star hotel, and trips to Sweden, Israel, Kenya, Uganda and around South Africa.
The trips were taken between December 2013 and November last year and, said the newspaper, "reveal Myeni's taste for five-star hotels, business-class travel, hotel room service and even a limousine ride" despite Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's 2013 cost-cutting restriction on travel, accommodation and conferences.
City Press reported that it viewed 68 pages of travel invoices and itineraries, but only five of the trips were accompanied by travel request forms giving reasons for the trips. The newspaper said that Mhlatuze Water responded to queries by sending a National Treasury instruction dated September 30, 2016, which the water board said provided Myeni was entitled to such travel, but the newspaper said the board did not explain how this covered her travel which was mostly before that date.
In September, President Jacob Zuma reappointed Myeni as the chair of the South African Airways board for another year.