Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has leapt into another “gravy plane” storm, declaring his outrage at the spending of R4.5 million to ferry Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Britain. He has announced a board of inquiry will investigate what happened.

“The amount of money allegedly paid is a shocking thing . . . It does not seem correct to me,” Lekota said in Pretoria yesterday. It was “irregular and way out of proportion with reasonable standards”.

He added that, in spite of the extraordinary high costs associated with this trip, neither the acting chief of the SANDF, Lt-Gen Solly Shoke, Defence Secretary and accounting officer January Masilela, nor the ministry was approached for formal approval of the expenditure.

Lekota was reacting to media reports yesterday that Mlambo-Ngcuka had undertaken another so-called gravy plane trip, this time to the United Kingdom at a cost of R3 million, because of a shortage of suitably trained pilots in the South African Air Force.

Pilot shortage But Lekota said the cost was actually R4.55 million.

The flight had apparently been chartered because all available VIP pilots, flying eight-hour shifts, had been assigned to fly President Thabo Mbeki to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States.

The deputy president is entitled to use the Air Force’s Falcon 900, but did not because of the pilot shortage. Suggestions are that, because of the holiday season, the only plane that could be chartered was in Switzerland. The plane will return to Switzerland once Mlambo-Ngcuka has returned to South Africa.

On Wednesday she flew to the UK to drum up support among |business leaders in Scotland and England for South African growth initiatives. She is expected back in the country tomorrow.

Lekota yesterday reiterated at a news conference that the Department of Defence was exclusively responsible for transporting the president and his deputy.

“The presidency has no say whatsoever in such a decision. Therefore any attempt to suggest that either the staff of the presidency or the deputy president herself is to blame, must be rejected with the contempt it deserves.”

A board of inquiry, headed either by a senior advocate or someone with legal experience from |outside the department, would be constituted to find out what |happened, who was responsible for “this glitch”, and to present a report to him as soon as possible “so I can act on the matter”.

Lekota welcomed the whistle-blowing role played by the media, saying it would enable the ministry, Defence Secretariat and the chief of the SANDF to do a thorough clean-up of what was clearly an unacceptable practice.

He also said the source of the information would be sought out.

“If someone in the department did not like what was happening, that person had two routes . . . but if he felt it would jeopardise himself then there must be another way to ensure this is stopped,” he said.

‘Upset’

Mlambo-Ngcuka, he said, was “extremely upset” about the latest debacle.

She had offered to use commercial flights, but this was |contrary to the law “so I would never allow that”.

Besides, he said, had she used commercial flights she would not have met her appointments.

“Attempts to create the impression that the deputy president is in search of extraordinary treatment or is corrupt is part of what I would like examined. I want to find out who in the department is |working to create this impression,” he said.

“We have nothing to do with the procurement of the transportation and we welcome an investigation to find out what is happening in |that department,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka’s spokesman, Thabang Chiloane