Four more heads roll in Gupta flight fiasco

FOUR more heads rolled yesterday following the furore over the landing at Waterkloof Air Force Base this week of a private jet chartered by the super-wealthy Gupta family for guests from India attending their daughter’s wedding.

Following the suspension of the chief of state protocol, Ambassador Bruce Koloane, on Thursday, three high-ranking Air Force officials as well as Gauteng’s deputy provincial police commissioner, Major-General Phumza Gela, were placed on compulsory special leave yesterday.

The Air Force officers involved are:

Officer commanding the Air Force command post, Brigadier General L Lombard;

Officer commanding the Air Force base, Brigadier General T S Madumane; and

Movement control officer Lt-Col C Anderson.

Also suspended are Gauteng deputy provincial police commissioner Major-General Phumza Gela, together with, as previously announced, Koloane.

And while Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said yesterday that the involvement of marked SAPS vehicles was still under investigation, reliable police sources who were at the Air Force base in Pretoria told Weekend Post that two clearly marked police vehicles with "flashing blue lights” arrived at the landing strip on three separate occasions this week.

The sources said two police vehicles then escorted wedding delegates from the airfield on all three occasions.

Officials at the Gauteng provincial police head office dismissed claims by police top brass that they were unaware of the prearranged escort.

"Marked vehicles were used in the escort. I saw them there,” one of the officers told Weekend Post.

Yesterday SA Policing Union (Sapu) general-secretary Oscar Skommere said while it welcomed Gela’s suspension in particular as it was "long overdue . . . we won’t accept any attempts to use junior officers as scapegoats in this fiasco”. Former police officer and Unisa criminologist Professor Rudolph Zinn last night also said it was a fact police vehicles from Gauteng and North West elite policing units, among others, were deployed. He said several other police officers had been used as "security guards”.

"There are photos and footage that prove this. It cannot be disputed. They also made use of a specialist police surveillance vehicle to ensure there was a communication up-link while the guests were transported,” he said.

Zinn highlighted that even though suspensions had been carried out, orders of misuse of state resources would have come from "very senior officials” who had a say in both the military and police.

"At this point we are still not sure where the request for these resources came from but typically a formal application [to police] for such resources would come from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"Even if the order did come from the deputy provincial commissioner, he would have had to alert the commissioner who in turn alerts the national office as to why these resources should be deployed.

"Again, we do not know if this even happened and if it did all the senior officers are also guilty of misuse of power and resources.”

The government, however, has repeatedly denied there was any "executive authority” given to the Guptas, who are close friends of President Jacob Zuma, for Tuesday’s landing which took place without proper government clearance.

The arrival of Indian ministers and guests for the wedding of Vega Gupta to Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia caused an instant diplomatic stir after it emerged they breached security protocol by landing at the military base.

They were then transported to the Sun City resort in unauthorised bluelight flashing vehicles with apparent police details in toe.

Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said the guests were found to be in the country legally, while department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said all 207 passengers and 12 crew members who had entered through Waterkloof were scheduled to leave South Africa via O R Tambo International Airport yesterday.

Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, flanked by other ministers from the justice, crime prevention and security cluster, told a hastily convened media conference yesterday that an investigation would be completed by a team of directors-general within seven days.

Virendra Gupta, the Indian High Commissioner, has been quoted as saying the chartered Jet Airways Airbus A330 had been granted permission.

But Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said yesterday she had denied the request. The operator of the jet had since been fined R80 000 because the aircraft did not have a foreign operator permit, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Phindiwe Gwebu said.

It also emerged that the Indian delegation convoy of black BMWs were fitted with emergency lights.

"These vehicles were identified as hired from S&M Transportation in Pretoria,” Radebe said. "A criminal case has been registered against the owner for illegally using the emergency lights and fitting false registration plates.

"It has also been established that some members of the contracted security company are members of both the SAPS and Tshwane Metro Police,” Radebe said.

Two metro police officers and one police reservist were arrested on Thursday.

Radebe would not be drawn on whether any of the Guptas or their guests could face charges.

Meanwhile, the Gupta family seem nonplussed over the furore.

"South Africans should be thankful for the investment the Gupta family was bringing to the country,” businessman Atul Gupta told SABC.

"There is so much you can see ... hundreds of people are getting jobs, there is a boost to the tourism.”

Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said the president "welcomed” investigations and was being kept abreast on steps being taken to "establish what happened to prevent a recurrence”.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the party would have "preferred government” to have responded and intervened earlier. "We condemn the blatant disregard of official state security and diplomatic protocols . . . and welcome the criminal charges.”

But DA MP David Maynier said government was merely doing damage control to "firewall” Zuma and members of his cabinet from any political fallout.

"It is hard to believe that not one minister or deputy minister in six departments . . . knew anything about the request for the Guptas’ jet . . . to land.”