Slideshow - Handbag drama: Minister must pay back money 
A minister, whose handbag drama in Norway cost SA taxpayers more than R200 000, should pay back the money out of her own pocket, the DA says. VIEW
The contents of International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane's handbag are not up for discussion, her spokesperson said on Friday.
"I can't believe you are asking that," Clayson Monyela said when asked why she recently refused to have her handbag scanned at an airport in Norway."It's not an issue we want to debate ... She was strong and defended her principle, and we have moved on from there."
Monyela said the Vienna Convention exempted diplomats from luggage searches at airports, and the minister - as the country's top diplomat - was right to stand her ground.
"At every airport, no diplomats are searched. This is why she refused."
The minister's handbag drama in Norway cost South African taxpayers more than R200 000.
Nkoana-Mashabane, who was on a state visit to that country earlier this month, refused to have her bag passed through an X-ray scanner at an airport in Oslo, the Mail & Guardian reported.
As a result, she missed her scheduled commercial flight to her next diplomatic engagement in Bulgaria. A private-charter executive jet, which cost R235 343, was then hired to transport her.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Handbag-furore-Matter-of-principle-20110916
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