Mr Speaker,
For the past 22 days the country has been inundated with the landing of a Jet Airways Airbus A330-200at the Air Force Base Waterkloof ferrying international guests to a wedding celebration which was held at Sun City.
Mr Speaker, on behalf of the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster I wish to address this House and highlight the various actions which were taken by Government to investigate this matter and to bring certainty that an action of this nature does not take place again.
There have been a number of misrepresentation of facts and we are accustomed to the approach of opposition parties who choose to appoint themselves as prosecutor, judge and jury. We have become used to opposition parties reaching a verdict while lacking any of the facts and opposition parties responding hysterically when facts of the matter do not fit their own fabricated conclusions.
1. In the spirit of transparency and our desire to bring this matter to a satisfactory closure, I wish to inform the House that I have acceded to the request of the Public Protector by furnishing her with a copy of the report.
2. There is only one report coming from the investigating team and it has been released to the public today. Criticising the report without having had the benefit of reading it would be informed by a far more sinister motive than the official report. It will be informed in my view by the accusations of a cover up even before the report was presented to the JCPS Cluster of Ministers. Other than speculation, it is inconceivable that persons other than the ones who had commissioned the report would have access to it before it is presented to the Cluster of Ministers.
3. The Ministers in the JCPS Cluster applied their minds to the report and resolved to accept its contents. We are aware that there are some within this House who may want a new route to the one we have taken. We will not dictate to the House what decision to take on this new route. We can only re-iterate that having applied our minds to the report, we are convinced that it has satisfied the mandate given to the investigating team.
4. There was full cooperation of departments and role players. Included in the methodology was the collection of sworn statements, affidavits, and in loco visits. We are convinced that there exists no other methodology other than the one deployed to arrive at conclusions of this nature.
5. The investigating team had already started with their investigations as from 1 May 2013. Based on preliminary investigations which were undertaken by Government, swift action was immediately taken against implicated individuals. On 2 May 2013 the Minister gave the Committee of Director-General seven working days to conduct the investigations.
6. The Investigating Team of four highest ranking officials comprised of one black woman Director-General, one African male Director-General, one African male Acting Director-General and one white male Acting Coordinator of the Intelligence Services. This excluded the Directors-General of the departments whose officials were directly involved in the collusion. We are confident that the investigating team carried its tasks in a professional and diligent manner. They met all the deadlines set by the JCPS Cluster of Ministers.
7. The findings of the investigating team are as follows:
7.1 In February 2013 the Gupta family approaches the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) and requested landing rights and an elaborate reception for the wedding party. This would have disrupted the functioning of OR Tambo International Airport at the time of landing, particularly the operations of the National Immigration Branch at the airport. As a result, this was turned down.
7.2 In March 2013 the Minister of Defence and Military veterans and her advisor were approached by the Gupta family on different occasions. On 3 April 2013 this request was also turned down. The Gupta family then resorted to the use of diplomatic channel with the support of an individual in the Indian High Commission who re-designated the wedding entourage as an official delegation to enable them to use the Air Force Base Waterkloof under cover of diplomatic privilege.
7.3 It is an undisputed fact that there was no official Note Verbale from the Indian High Commission to the Department of Internal relations and Cooperation, and therefore due process was not followed. An individual in the Indian High Commission communicated directly with individuals at the Air Force Command Post. The collusion of officials resulted in the irregular approval of the flight clearance.
7.4 The aircraft in question was cleared for landing and the correct clearance procedures were followed, but based on false pretences as a result of the manipulation of the process by the Gupta family, individuals in the Indian High Commission, Chief of State Protocol, Ambassador V.B. Koloane and Officer Commanding Movement Control at the base, Lieutenant-Colonel C. Anderson who shared a common purpose and acted in concert. This had the potential of damaging the good diplomatic and deep historical relations South Africa enjoys with India on the bilateral, multi-lateral, international and BRICS level.
8. Mr Koloane admitted under investigation that that the request as for the Gupta family wedding, an admission that the status of the visit was clearly not official, diplomatic or military and that the incoming party was not a delegation in the official understanding of the term.
9. The Director-General in the Presidency made it clear that no one in the President ever gave an instruction in the conduct of Mr Koloane. This included the Private Office of the President.
10. The reference to an invitation of the Indian “delegation” to the Free State Provincial Government was opaque, as no member of this party travelled to Free State for such a meeting. However, an Indian State Minister, an equivalent of an MEC was received by the Free State MEC for Agriculture three days prior to the arrival of the Gupta wedding party. This Indian State Minister therefore arrived in, and departed from South Africa completely separate from the Gupta wedding party, despite attending the wedding at Sun City.
11. As Government we re-iterate that those who are found by the continuing investigation to have colluded will be dealt with in a decisive manner with the requirement of the labour processes attached thereto.
12. Six cases have been opened at the Sun City Police Station and the report reflects the pieces of legislation that were infringed and the relevant case numbers. In spite of one media report this morning, no decision has been taken to withdraw any case relating to this incident. As at 11h39 today, I was informed that the National Prosecuting Authority was meeting to discuss how to proceed with this matter.
13. Members of the Executive were not required to issue any instructions, did not issue any instructions, and did not create the impression that they ought to have issued any instructions. There is factual and incontrovertible evidence, both real and direct, that would stand even in a court of law. This evidence clearly shows that the two officials are not “fall guys” or “scapegoats” but masters of this manipulation of process. The only logical conclusion is that they were on a frolic of their own. We therefore dispel any notion that the plane just landed as it was authorised and cleared albeit through the manipulation of the process.
14. Any insinuation of a cover up as alluded to by opposition party leaders, some commentators, the public and the media, are clearly misplaced. Their stance is informed by their viewing of a legal issue from a political, uninformed and emotional perspective.
15. In conclusion, Mr Speaker, we are aware that with next elections being just around the corner, every effort will be made to use the report, in spite of its comprehensiveness, as a tool to garner support for certain political parties and individuals within them. It would be wrong for us to decide on the elections strategies and tactics of other political parties and individuals, but to caution against unnecessary over-exaggeration of facts without corroborative and incontrovertible evidence being brought forward.
16. If there are individuals in both this House and the general public who have information that would strengthen further investigations into this matter, they are at liberty to submit this to the police and investigating authorities.
