Durban - The South African National Defence Force says the question whether President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should fly on commercial airlines has to take into account both their schedules.
“One would need to look at the schedules and see if it would make sense for them to travel commercial together with the detail of the entourage, at short notice, and the quickest possible times,” SANDF spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said.
He had been asked if having Zuma and Ramaphosa travel on SA Airways was not a reasonable alternative, to ease the demand on military aircraft and the expenses incurred in chartering planes.
At the weekend City Press reported that the South African Air Force would before the end of this year be purchasing three new jets at a cost of R2 billion to transport Zuma, Ramaphosa and other top government officials.
Dlamini would not confirm the cost.
The DA and the EFF have slammed the impending purchase of a Boeing Business Jet and two Falcon 900 jets.
DA MP David Maynier suggested Zuma fly SAA.
SAAF spokeswoman Brigadier-General Marthie Visser had defended the purchase of the jets to City Press, saying that the current fleet was insufficient to meet the increase in the country’s international relations commitments over the past two decades.
She also said the cost of chartering planes, as a contingency measure, had put pressure on the SAAF’s already tight budget.
The EFF has argued that the money used to buy new jets could have been used to pay the university fees of tens of thousands of students who were academically deserving, but unable to secure government funding for their studies.
The Mercury