Cape Town - Meet the civil servant who has been able to pull all the strings necessary for the Guptagate wedding scandal.
This incredibly powerful individual was identified by government on Thursday morning as Vusi Bruce Koloane, the Chief of State Protocol in the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
Koloane, who has been placed “on compulsory leave”, was allegedly able to:
* Arrange permission for a civilian aircraft carrying about 200 guests for a private wedding to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base, South Africa’s largest military airport and a national key point.
* Ensure that customs officials from the South African Revenue Service were not on hand to ask bothersome questions.
* Ensure that immigration officials were available to stamp passports.
* Arrange for South African Police VIP Protection personnel to transfer the private guests from Waterkloof to Sun City by blue light convoy.
Apparently, Koloane had been able to do this without the help of the ministers or senior officials of all the departments involved, which suggests that he had an unmatched array of inter-departmental contacts.
Exactly how Koloane had been able to do all this, however, has not yet been explained.
This is now the subject of an investigation announced by his department on Wednesday.
But Koloane seems to have overstepped his authority and he was placed on compulsory leave on Thursday, according to department spokesman Clayson Monyela.
It was also unclear as of this morning where the guests would depart back to India from as the plane was ordered to be removed from the airbase.
Monyela said no executive authority had been granted either by his department or the presidency for the civilian aircraft to land at Waterkloof airbase.
However, it had become clear that flight clearances were secured with the involvement of some officials, leading to the decision taken against Koloane.
His deputy would assume his duties for the time being.
The chief of state protocol oversees the procedures and processes for visiting dignitaries and ensures they are followed correctly.
Institutions including the South African Revenue Service (Sars), Home Affairs, the police, the SANDF and Dirco would launch an interdepartmental investigation, said Monyela.
Monyela also confirmed that the aircraft would be removed from Waterkloof and that the guests would not fly out from there. However, he could not say where it would be moved to.
President Jacob Zuma’s spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said the interdepartmental investigation would be conducted “with speed”. He also denied that Zuma or his office had authorised the landing at Waterkloof.
“The investigation shows the concern (of the presidency),” Maharaj said.
However, he would not answer questions as to what Zuma would do to ensure that this type of breach of national security would not happen again or any further details on the scope of the investigation.
“We need to allow that process to complete its work before commenting,” said Maharaj.
DA Defence spokesman David Maynier suggested on Thursday the government was making a scapegoat of Koloane.
“I have no doubt he played a role but I don’t buy the ‘rogue official’ line,” Maynier said.
When the Cape Argus’s sister paper The Star tried to contact the Guptas on Thursday morning, a man who answered Atul Gupta’s phone said that the family were “busy with the guests” and were unavailable to speak.
Although permission can be granted for non-dignitary or non-military craft to land at Waterkloof, Sars needs to be informed in advance.
This is because they need their staff to be present in order to “clear goods and passengers on such aircraft”.
This is according to Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay, who added that there were no Sars officials present at Waterkloof on Tuesday and that they would be investigating the matter.
The chartered aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, touched down at Waterkloof early on Tuesday morning.
The guests were flown in from New Delhi to attend the wedding of Vega Gupta, daughter of Achla Gupta and the niece of the ANC-affiliated Gupta brothers, and Aakash Jahajgarhia at Sun City. They were escorted by the police VIP protection services to the resort.
Cape Argus