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| S.Africa officials 'used Zuma name in wedding jet scandal' | | |
PRETORIA: South African officials used President Jacob Zuma's name to secure landing rights at a military air base to fly in guests for a lavish wedding hosted by a well-connected Indian family, a report released Sunday showed.
The name-dropping was "very bad" and government officials should not have allowed themselves to be "intimidated" into accommodating the Gupta family, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said as he presented the preliminary findings from an investigation into last month's incident.
The probe found that the family had been denied permission to land their chartered jet carrying guests at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg because it would have disrupted normal operations.
The family then turned to an Indian diplomat who wrongly told his South African government contacts that the wedding party was an official delegation, the report found.
The Airbus 330 private jet was then cleared to land at the Waterkloof military base near Pretoria "based on false information and abuse of privileges", according to the panel of ministers tasked with investigating the incident, which has embarrassed the government.
The probe found that Zuma himself was not involved in the case but that his name, and those of the defence and transport ministers, had been used to manipulate official procedures. "The issue of name-dropping has been established in this investigation," Radebe said at a press conference in Pretoria, flanked by six ministers including those from defence, state security and foreign affairs.
The landing of the plane "following the exercise of undue influence had the potential to compromise the credibility of the government... and could have caused severe reputational damage to the state itself," he added. The wealthy Gupta family, which has close ties to Zuma and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, on Sunday issued a fresh public apology for the scandal.
The family "wish to once again reiterate our apology for any embarrassment or inconvenience caused by the landing of the aircraft and the events that followed."
"Our intention was simply to provide our daughter with a memorable wedding," said the family in a statement late Sunday. "In the process, perhaps some misjudgments may have been made."
The incident drew widespread condemnation, with Zuma facing allegations of cronyism from political foes and rare public rebukes from his allies.
A senior South African diplomat in charge of protocol and several police officers have been suspended for their role in allowing the aircraft to land at the restricted base.
Bollywood stars and politicians were among the guests attending the nuptials of Vega Gupta, a niece of the powerful Gupta brothers who own several companies including Sahara Computers and the pro-government New Age newspaper.
Their convoy of 121 vehicles was also granted a full police escort to the Sun City resort for the four-day affair billed as "the wedding of the year".
The report said that some of the cars had false registration numbers and estimated that nearly 200 police officers had been deployed for the convoy.
Police are still carrying out further investigations that could lead to sanctions for those implicated in the scandal.
International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said she would share the probe's findings with the Indian government, but for now ties between the two countries remained "robust". |
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