The Ministry of Police has noted, once again the misrepresentation of facts by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to the public around the purchase of the Cessna Citation Sovereign jet.
It a statement: “Police’s R150-million private jet scandal”, dated 17 November 2009, Ms Dianne Kohler Barnard makes false assertions on Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa’s “self-aggrandising, lavish hotel stays and brand new luxury vehicle,” clearly this is an act of political point scoring and typical of DA’s opportunistic media attention.
Firstly, as Kohler Barnard would know, unless she has forgotten, in a written reply to Parliament the Minister stated that the jet was purchased in February 2008. Now this was long before he was appointed to the police portfolio. Whether the decision was approved under his predecessor, the Minister will not shy away from responding to any financial decision that might have taken place before he assumed office.
For the record, this is not Minister Mthethwa’s private jet, but a South African Police (SAPS) jet and government property. In the written reply, he outlined that the jet’s transportation were all official and operational duties and at no certain point was the jet used for private purposes. The national commissioner has also made a provision that this aircraft can be utilised by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for specific missions where necessary.
Kohler Barnard’s ignorance on the decision to purchase the jet is baffling. From 2007 when SAPS briefed the Portfolio Committee on Police on the requirements of the SAPS Air Wing and how SAPS proposed to develop and beef up its capacity, these included the purchase of the specific jet in question. DA is part of the portfolio committee and did not make any objection, hence the Committee approved this decision.
The jet has been effectively used for amongst other purposes: transportation of members of the special task force to hostage situations, for example in Eastern Cape; transportation of police leadership and management; transportation of joint operation and intelligence structure to provinces to evaluate the state of readiness of security personnel regarding the national and provincial elections in 2009; as well as various events such as the FIFA 2009 Confederations Cup and planning for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The procurement of this specific jet is that it can land and take off from short runaways. In view of the fact that the SAPS, like any other police service in the world, only has limited capacity of certain highly specialised skills, it is therefore necessary to have an aircraft to deploy such members within a short space of time anywhere in the country. It is also untrue that the police leadership used the jet for party political purposes. When they perform their duties such as visible policing in various provinces, they do so as government officials and not under party banners.
The investment in SAPS resources should be understood from a context that, from time to time, SAPS will review some of the resources to enable police to effectively fight crime. There has been criticism before of situations where police have not acted swiftly due to lack of resources. When a decision to purchase resources is made, it is not Minister’s unilateral decision but informed by a transparent consultation process, looking at the various pros and cons of such a financial decision.
We expect of a political party like DA, in their quest for media attention and seeking political scoring, to do so within the principles of the law. To begin to link non-factual reports around the Minister of Police shows lack of understanding of the policing issues. Such irresponsible statements are unfortunate and serve to mislead the public.
For enquiries, please contact:
Zweli Mnisi
Cell: 082 045 4024
Issued by: South African Police Service
18 November 2009
