RESPONSE BY THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE AND MILITARY VETERANS, Ms

NOSIVIWE MAPISA-NQAKULA TO THE SUNDAY TIMES REPORT ON

ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE OF STATE RESOURCES
The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has noted the
report on the Sunday Times, alleging that transported a young woman into the country
unlawfully and that in the process, she abused state resources.
The Minister has been saddened by the report, as well as the deliberate attempt to twist the
facts in this matter. She particularly find it hurtful that despite her sharing the circumstances
involved in the unfolding of this matter with the Sunday Times, the reporter chose his
obvious bias and sensation, without any regard for the protection of a child rescued from a
life of abuse and abandonment. In so doing the reporter, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, may have
caused to reverse months of progress the child has made in healing and rebuilding her life.
In setting the record straight, the Minister has placed the following facts for the South African
people about her own involvement on this matter, as fully disclosed but deliberately ignored
by the Sunday Times report. She said the following:
1. For more than two years now, my family and I have been living with a young woman, a
Burundian national, that was forced to leave her home to escape a life of abuse at the hands
of her father. Her mother died, having committed suicide due to abuse when the little girl as
three years old.
2. The young woman had become friends with my children during their various holiday
visits, between 2013 and 2014, to Burundi, where my sister lived during her diplomatic tour
of duty for the SA government.
3. During this period, Mimi, as we all call her in the house, visited my family in South Africa
twice, including spending the festive holidays of 2013 with us.
4. As required by our immigration laws, my family and I provided letters of invitation and
confirmation for living expenses in order for her visa to be issued. On both occasions that
she had visited us in 2013, Mimi was issued a visa (visitors permit) on the presentation of
her Burundi passport.
5. It was only after our children had returned with Mimi to Burundi for the January leg of the
holidays that we became aware of the circumstances under which she had been living and
that since her childhood, she had lived a life of abuse and had lived with various relatives and
foster families in Europe, the US and Burundi, since her mother died.
6. She had expressed a wish to live in South Africa to pursue her studies and to live in a safe
environment. Her father initially allowed her to travel to SA and also gave her passport
which he normally kept.
7. On the day the children were to travel, her father followed her at the airport with security
personnel and demanded that she not travel. Mimi was already over 18 years of age and
protested that she can no longer continue to live in a secretive life of abuse and that with her
fathers powerful connections she will not receive protection in Burundi. (This traumatic

conversation of the confrontation in the Airport security office is recorded by the children and
is available)
8. Since her father could not legally stop her from travelling, he once again confiscated her
passport, which still had a valid 3 months South African visa from her previous travel to SA
9. From this moment, Mimi resolved to seek refuge with friends and other families and seek
help to obtain papers to leave Burundi on her own.
10. She approached the UNCHR who registered her case but could not assist her as their
scope was limited to assisting refugees who were entering their Burundi seeking protection
from other countries. They did not have the ability to assist her to leave the country, but
given the seriousness of her case, they advised her to seek entry into the Democratic Republic
of Congo and advised her to contact the Congolese embassy in Bujumbura.
11. She was then advised she could be assisted to obtain a temporary Congolese passport. In
order to avoid the risk of alerting her father of the impending escape, she had to assume a
false name at the Uvira border, she was assisted with temporary travel documents to travel
into the Congo and present herself to the South African embassy and reveal her true identity
for assistance and protection.
12. Having concern for her destitute situation, and worried for her safety in a foreign country,
I had once again, in my individual capacity, written an assurance letter to the SA embassy in
the DRC to assist her in obtaining a visa so that she can travel to SA. In this regard she had
become a classical case for refugee assistance and protection.
13. She was however, arrested in the Congo on suspicion of holding a fraudulent document as
she couldnt speak French or any of the Congolese local languages.
14. This young, frail and vulnerable woman, known to my family and a friend of our
children, became destitute and vulnerable to further abuse, possibly even sexual harassment.
She was in detention for a total of 10 days.
15. It was also around this time that I was supposed to travel on official business for the 26th
AU summit in Addis Abba towards the end of January 2014. My delegation and I were also
due to meet with my counterpart in the DRC, in preparation for the Ministerial consultation
of countries dealing with the Great Lakes crisis, on the side of the AU summit.
16. Given this opportunity, after the meeting, I had brought the matter of Mimis plight to the
Minister to enquire if there is a way for her to be assisted.
17. The Minister in the DRC, then consulted the immigration office to enquire about her
circumstances, and was informed that she had not committed a crime and was only detained
to verify how she obtained a Congolese travel document and that they had concluded there
investigation in that regard. They also confirmed that my account of her circumstances
collaborated her written statement at the time of detention and that she could be released.
18. To avoid her being deported back to her country, I offered to take her with me and to
assist her in gaining her lawful travel documents. It is therefore completely misleading, as
reported by the Sunday Times, that I had organised a trip and assembled a delegation of

senior military and government officials, simply to travel to the Congo to illegally smuggle
a child. Mimi had been lawfully released by the Congolese government after my clarification
of her circumstances and the conclusion of their own investigation.
19. Fortunately Mimi had kept a copy of her passport with a South African Visa on a memory
stick, and it was through this document that she was able to travel with me to Addis Ababa
and return to South Africa, legally. Why the Sunday Times report chooses to claim that she
travelled with fraudulent documents, is beyond comprehension. The copy of this document is
also available.
20. She has since applied and obtained a study permit and enrolled at a college in South
Africa while living in my house.
21. Mimi is finally on a path of healing and living in conditions of safety and it is my hope
that she will find stability that will help to prepare her for a full and productive future life
22. Over this period, she has re-established contact with her family, and recently, we recently
also received a request from her father to meet with her, and with her consent advised that he
can come and see her at the house where she can be comfortable.
23. It is my hope that she can continue to study and complete her studies with our support and
that this will prepare her to be a stable and independent woman, when she finally leaves our
home on completion of her schooling.
24. I have no regrets in the actions that I have taken and my involvement in assisting this
child. I would never have been able to live with my conscience if something had happened to
her when I knew that I could have done something to help her. I believe it was the right thing
to do.
The Ministry will like to put it on record that the facts as presented above were given to the
Sunday Times reporter Mr Mzilikazi wa Afrika, who
[12:49, 2016/05/22] Peter Motloutsi: came with the editor-in-chief to interview the Minister
late Saturday afternoon.
The Ministry had initially recorded our concern with the Editor that, the Minister was only
informed at 14h00 that there is a story involving her that is being written for the following
day, and that they will want her response.
It was always our concern that such a last minute approach would jeopardise the integrity of
the story as, so close to the deadline, the story had already been written without the Ministers
side of the story, and that it would be difficult, at that late stage to rework the story to reflect
the truth, even after obtaining the facts. The sensational manner in which the report was
finally written, is a confirmation of our fears.
They had however insisted that they will go ahead with their own story and as a result the
interview was granted. The sensational headline for a front page story was however too
tempting for them to take the time to verify all the facts that have been given, including
contacting the UNHCR, the Immigration departments and Mimis family back home. Once
again, the truth suffered at the hands of unethical and unprofessional conduct of an
enthusiastic reporter yearning for bygone glory. This in violation of the Press Council code.

The Minister reserves all her rights in seeking recourse on this matter for her, her family,
including the protection of Mimi from abuse and harassment.
Issued by the Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans