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Cape Town - South African sports minister Fikile Mbalula was at it again on Tuesday, taking on the form of 'Father Christmas' as he dished out cash bonuses to Team South Africa's Paralympic medalists.
The team returned with 17 medals to show for their efforts - 7 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze - and Mbalula had good news for everybody who had contributed to that tally at Tuesday's team arrival at OR Tambo International.
All gold medalists would receive an additional R100 000 per medal to accompany the R400 000 that had initially been allocated, while an extra R80 000 was given to those who had won silver and an additional R30 000 to those who had won bronze to go with the R200 000 and R80 000, respectively, they had already won.
A bonus of R150 000 was also given to any athlete who broke a world record.
It means that South African sprinter Charl du Toit was in for a serious pay day.
Having won two gold medals - in the 100m T37 and 400m T37 class - including a world record in the former, Du Toit now stands to collect well over R1 million for his efforts.
The athletes will no doubt be grateful for the extra money, but Mbalula's generosity did not go down well with everyone.
Mbalula is on tv calling himself Father Christmas for giving away millions of our money to paraolympions but govnt says they have no money
— Sinethemba Memela (@SN_Memela) September 20, 2016
Will #Mbalula's mates at #SARS tax his #teamsawelcome bonuses to pay for Nkandla, VIP jet, etc etc? #Zuma #ANC #thief
— SaffaZimbo (@SaffaZimbo) September 20, 2016
Gold medalist Hilton Langenhoven poses with Min Mbalula. Langenhoven won gold in the T12 long jump #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/fLHeWQpWaa
— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) September 20, 2016
Bronze medalist Zanele Situ poses with Min Mbalula. She participated in the women's javelin throw pic.twitter.com/y3jk0kOqnd
— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) September 20, 2016
Mbalula: Only 1 father Christmas in sport. And that is Fikile.@Sport24news @News24
— Wim Pretorius (@Wimster101) September 20, 2016
