Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The cash-strapped South African National Defence Force cannot afford |Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s |R4.55-million flight, according to Thandi Tobias, the National Assembly’s defence committee chairman.

“We are watching developments very closely. We are very worried what will happen if the (Defence) Department is forced to pay the R4.55-million with the financial situation it is already in,” she said yesterday.

The Auditor-General would no doubt give the SANDF another qualified audit “just when we thought we were getting the books on the right track”, she said.

Tobias was responding to reports that the Deputy President had flown to the United Kingdom in a jet chartered from Switzerland at a cost of millions.

Lekota, as Defence Minister, is responsible for providing President Thabo Mbeki and Mlambo-Ngcuka with air transport, courtesy of the South African Air Force for official business.

Lekota did not authorise the cost of the trip.

Tobias said she would be taking a keen interest in what the board of inquiry – established by Lekota to investigate the chartering of the plane – would recommend.

“We can’t afford to have another qualified audit, especially of that amount. And whether we like it or not the Auditor-General is going to give us another qualified report for unexplained expenditure,” Tobias said.

Lekota’s spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi yesterday was unable to say as yet who would head the board of inquiry, noting it would be difficult to find an available advocate this close to Christmas.

But he said the board’s composition – that was expected to follow a paper trail to who ultimately authorised the hiring of the plane – should be announced this week as per Lekota’s wishes.

He said the terms of reference had also not been established yet but could not rule out that it may also look into the leaking of information to the media from Defence Force sources.

But he restated Lekota’s apparent approval of such information being highlighted by “whistle blowers”.

Meanwhile, Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is expected to arrive back in South Africa from London early tomorrow, is apparently very upset by the allegations that she knowingly spent |R4.55-million to hire a plane.

“She has been very upset by the national reaction, especially when she has been trying so hard not to do anything wrong,” said her spokesperson Thabang Chiloane from London.

The Deputy President, who flew to Marseilles in France and then to Edinburgh, Scotland, for meetings with university vice-chancellors and investors on matters relating to the government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative, claims she had no hand in the travel arrangements.

Lekota has also said Mlambo-Ngcuka herself was not at fault.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, who then flew to Gatwick airport south of London for further talks with the South West Teachers Training College, is reportedly trying to establish training programmes or “twinnings” in order to promote Business Processing Outsourcing, which forms part of the Asgisa programme.

“The plane seats about 10 people and only essential staff accompanied her – there was nobody catching a free ride or anything,” Chiloane said, describing the allegations against the Deputy President as “unfair”.

However, Mlambo-Ngcuka has been criticised for similar flights twice before. Last year an Air Force plane was used to transport her and her family for a private holiday in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier this year she again made headlines when she took a 13-minute plane ride to a golf tournament at the nearby Sun City resort.

Mlambo-Ngcuka had to charter a flight last week, after the SANDF did not have sufficient pilots available to fly her to France and the UK.

The Freedom Front Plus said yesterday the fact that there were not enough pilots available in South Africa to fly the South African Air Force’s presidential jets was proof of the “total collapse as a result of government’s affirmative action and transformation policies”.

“The FF Plus asked the Minister of Defence last year in Parliament about the sufficiency of suitably trained black pilots for the presidential jets and was assured by the minister that there was one qualified pilot and a further four in training. “It is, however, not known how many of the pilots in training completed successfully since last year,” FF+ spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said.

The air force’s affirmative action policy had also come under fire earlier this year, when it became known that the three top students in training – who were white – were not allowed to proceed with further training as fighter pilots, Groenewald said.

“The events point to a disregard for the South African taxpayer in that cost are incurred due to the Defence Force,” he said.