{"id":12516,"date":"2014-01-06T04:05:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T04:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12516"},"modified":"2014-01-06T04:05:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T04:05:00","slug":"north-west-premier-splurges-r13m-on-new-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12516","title":{"rendered":"North West premier splurges R1,3m on new car"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12517\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12517\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bmw_7_series.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12517\" alt=\"A BMW 7-series similar to the one bought for Modise\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bmw_7_series-300x225.jpeg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bmw_7_series-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bmw_7_series.jpeg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12517\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BMW 7-series similar to the one bought for Modise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While the South African cabinet has prohibited extravagant expenditure, such as luxury vehicles, for government officials, the premier of North West, Thandi Modise, province has just bought a car worth R1,3 million (about $125 000).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The vehicle concerned is a high-end BMW 750i. South Africa&#8217;s black politicians can often be seen speeding along the highway in expensive black cars, surrounded by VIP escorts with flashing blue lights, burning taxpayers&#8217; funds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The provincial MEC for transport, Raymond Elisha, jas confirmed to the Sunday Times newspaper that such a car has been purchased by the province for use by Modise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;No laws were broken,&#8221; he said.\u00a0&#8220;The car was purchased in compliance with the ministerial handbook, which states that a car to the value of 70% of her annual salary can be purchased,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With great fanfare, it was announced in October by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan that henceforth there would be a more frugal policy on vehicle prrocurement and travel by government officials.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But, according to Elisha, the decision to purchase the luxury BMW &#8220;had been taken long before the cost-cutting plans were announced&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The provincial premier is on record as saying:\u00a0&#8220;I do not determine whether a jet is procured or whatever. All I know is that I have been using a car that is constantly sent for repairs and finally I was told &#8216;we are buying a new car&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the South African cabinet has prohibited extravagant expenditure, such as luxury vehicles, for government officials, the premier of North West, Thandi Modise, province has just bought a car worth R1,3 million (about $125 000). The vehicle concerned is a high-end BMW 750i. South Africa&#8217;s black politicians can often be seen speeding along the highway &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=12516\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;North West premier splurges R1,3m on new car&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[7938,497,7939,722],"class_list":["post-12516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-bmw-750i","tag-north-west-province","tag-raymond-elisha","tag-thandi-modise"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bmw_7_series.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12518,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12516\/revisions\/12518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}