R1.3 million: Alleged amount spent on Mama Joy’s RWC France trip explained

by Staff Bona

Mama Joyride – this is the name that politician Renaldo Gouws gave Joy Chauke after it was revealed that an alleged R1.3 million of the taxpayers’ money was spent on the sports fanatic’s trip to France for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

It all started on 2 October 2023 when Renaldo took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the following:

“I was today years old when I found out that these two [Mama Joy and Botha Msila] are paid by the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture to go and be supporters in the stands. I’m not joking, they are paid by taxpayers to go to sporting events across the world to ‘represent’ South Africa.”

The post had many internet users split – some sided with Mama Joy, while others had the same sentiments as Renaldo. Nevertheless, it turned Mama Joy into an overnight sensation.

This did not stop Renaldo from enquiring where the superfans’ funding came from.

In a recent X post, the Democratic Alliance member shared that the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture responded to his Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application regarding the overseas trip.

“[T]hey spent R1,361,000 on TWO superfans on flights and accommodation ALONE, and this was just for the 2023 Rugby World Cup,” wrote Renaldo in a lengthy post. “How did they select them? Well, according to the Department, there isn’t actually an official initiative. The ‘superfans’ managed to speak to the Department at O.R. Tambo on the 28th of August 2023 (11 days before the tournament started) and asked if they could go.”

He continued, “What’s quite strange then is how some of these ‘superfans’ appear to always be at the right place at the right time,” before adding that the Minister and his delegates spent a total of R7,790,000.

Renaldo shared another post of the cost breakdown with some missing totals.

Also see: A look back at Mama Joy’s tax-paying trip to France