Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

An inquiry into Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s latest “gravy plane” fiasco has been broadened |to include all her air travel for the year.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is in the middle of another storm, this time relating to the chartering of a plane owned by IT billionaire Mike Shuttleworth.

This comes after the Swiss plane chartered for her trip to the UK at a cost of R4.55million broke down on Monday and another had to be chartered.

The deputy president is also reported to have travelled to |Australia recently on a plane hired for R3million, while another official trip to Portugal and Ireland involved the hiring of planes owned by businessmen Raymond Ackerman and Aaron Searll.

Mlambo-Ngcuka is entitled to fly in the SANDF’s Falcon 900, but there is a shortage of available VIP pilots.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota announced at the weekend that a board of inquiry would look into his department’s chartering of the Swiss plane.

It would also include the alleged leaks to the media amid security concerns.

Yesterday, Lekota’s office announced the inquiry would now span the period between January 1 and December 10 this year.

Mlambo-Ngcuka plans to remain in South Africa this holiday season, unlike last year, when her holiday to the United Arab Emirates began her “gravy plane” woes.

In a statement, the Defence Ministry reiterated that it was responsible for the deputy president’s air travel.

In his reaction, DA defence spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said the defence force’s price tag for transporting VIPs would continue to rise as long as the air force’s capacity deteriorated.

“There is a crisis in the SAAF that has once again been highlighted by the hiring of an aircraft for R4.55million to take the deputy president to the UK, while the SAAF has already acquired aircraft at a huge cost to do so.”

He said the SAAF faced a major crisis because its airfields, including Waterkloof airfield, were not maintained properly.

Between 2004 and October this year 535 technicians and 70 pilots had resigned from the SAAF, he said.

“The SAAF now faces a crisis of who will fly and service VIP jets, 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainers, 26 Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft, eight Airbus A400m aircraft, four maritime helicopters, 12 Rooivalk helicopters and various other aircraft that are costing taxpayers billions of rands.

“The lack of funds and the loss of skills mean that our air force is operationally ineffective. The SANDF’s exit mechanisms, designed to get rid of white individuals, together with racial quotas for senior positions, are mostly to blame for this situation.”

The most modern military hardware would mean nothing if there were no individuals to operate it or technicians to service it, Jankielsohn said.

“The government must take responsibility for spending billions of rands on military hardware that the SAAF does not have the capacity to utilise effectively.

“The few remaining resources that the SAAF has will either have to be used for transporting VIPs or maintaining combat readiness. It cannot do both,” he said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka’s spokesperson, Thabang Chiloane, yesterday said he was not able to comment on the issue as it was a defence force responsibility.

He said Mlambo-Ngcuka’s use of commercial flights “depends on defence’s security clearance”.

Meanwhile, Jankielsohn’s colleague, DA MP Gareth Morgan, said the view that Mlambo-Ngcuka was being set up to fail because she was a woman was absurd and illustrated a tendency to blame the misuse of public funds on conspiracies.

“There appears to be a growing trend in the government and its related institutions to explain away the facts by pointing to conspiracies.”

He was reacting to a statement by the Commission on Gender Equality, which earlier this week questioned whether Mlambo-Ngcuka was being set up to fail.

Morgan said R4.55million of taxpayers’ money had been spent transporting Mlambo-Ngcuka to London because the Department of Defence could not organise more suitable transport arrangements on time.

It is not clear why the deputy president was not able to travel on a commercial flight since she had flown to London on a commercial airliner a year ago.