A high-level military investigation into how a convicted South African mercenary ended up flying President Jacob Zuma to the US to attend a UN General Assembly meeting is under way.
The investigation comes two weeks after defence secretary Mpumi Mpofu and the air force chief, Lieutenant-General Carlo Gagiano, tendered their resignations over the VIP aircraft debacle plaguing the defence force.
Mpofu’s resignation has been accepted, but Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has refused to accept that of Gagiano, who is recovering in 1 Military Hospital from a burst ulcer.
The fiasco has now forced the Defence Ministry to turn to the National Treasury Department to help set up a finance module to find the R1.6 billion needed to buy new VIP aircraft.
The crisis began several years ago after the SAAF was forced to charter private aircraft to fly Zuma and his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, on trips as it did not have the necessary planes.
On at least three of Motlanthe’s flights the chartered planes have had technical difficulties.
The most recent incident was last month when Motlanthe had to shorten a trip to Europe because the aircraft he was meant to fly in could not take off from Waterkloof Air Force Base.
Apart from demanding to know why the safety and security of Zuma and Motlanthe had been compromised and the country has been embarrassed, the Pretoria News has learnt that Sisulu is now also seeking answers as to how convicted mercenary Neil Steyl was allowed to fly Zuma to the US.
A photograph in the possession of the Pretoria News shows Steyl, who was convicted and imprisoned in Zimbabwe for his role in the foiled Equatorial Guinea coup, standing next to Zuma. It is believed the picture, which shows Steyl in an SAAF uniform, was taken soon after Zuma returned to South Africa from the UN meeting two months ago.
Steyl was convicted for his role in the foiled coup, which was aimed at overthrowing Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and replacing him with exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
Steyl was to fly 70 mercenaries, led by convicted British mercenary Simon Mann, on a Boeing 727 with weapons from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea.
It is understood that the aircraft Zuma was flown in to the US was a Boeing 727 and that the SAAF does not have any pilots qualified to fly those planes.
Sisulu’s spokesman, Ndivhuwo Mabaya, confirmed last night that the issue of the mercenaries had been taken up with Gagiano.
“When Sisulu became aware of the allegations she instructed Gagiano to immediately investigate it as a matter of urgency. At this stage we cannot confirm or deny it because it is still under investigation.
“If it is true we need to know how someone like this can be allowed to fly the president and whether there were any security lapses.
“We have been told one of the reasons is that the SAAF doesn’t have the pilots to fly this type of plane.
“It is for this precise reason that we believe it is in the defence force’s best interest to have planes which the SAAF has pilots to fly,” he said.
Mabaya said the entire matter boiled down to the SAAF’s current VIP aircraft situation and the procurement problems around such planes.
Urgent assistance from the Treasury had been sought to find a financial module to buy the required aircraft.
“We need R1.6bn to buy these aircraft. We’ve been given advice from various quarters, but we need the Treasury to come up with the right module for the money which we simply do not have for aircraft which we need now even though we don’t have the finances for them,” he said. - Pretoria News