An absentee police minister and the Dubai jaunt

The lavish 1,500-room Atlantis Hotel on The Palm, where a seven-night stay for four costs about £10,000.
Fikile Mbalula, South Africa's police minister, chose to be enjoying his Christmas holiday at a luxury hotel in Dubai during a peak period for crime back home.

People are now questioning how the minister could afford to take his family to the lavish 1,500-room Atlantis hotel on The Palm, where a seven-night stay for four costs about £10,000.

Fikile Mbalula
The development has sparked a flood of protests from South Africans who have always been suspicious of all of President Zuma’s ministers because of the persistent corruption claims swirling around his government.

South African holidaymakers later photographed the minister accompanied by his family and scrolling through his smartphone in an exclusive bar at the Atlantis.

Many government ministers, Mr Mbalula not included, are alleged to have enjoyed expensive trips to Dubai funded by the controversial Gupta brothers. The Indian business trio are in turn alleged to have exploited their close ties to President Zuma and his officials to try and secure state contracts, something all parties have denied.