On the face of it, the South African government acted with unprecedented high speed to deal with the fallout over the landing of the Guptas’ private jet carrying wedding guests from India at the Waterkloof Air Force Base. Within three weeks of the show-stopper wedding of the niece of the Gupta brothers, Cabinet ministers trotted out to present to the public the findings of a government investigation. So far, so good.
The report by a team of directors-general contains some startling new facts about the landing of the jet and transport of the wedding guests to the Sun City resort. The full report is to be released in the coming week, according to Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, who heads the justice, crime prevention and security Cabinet cluster which commissioned the investigation.
The total deployment of government personnel during the operation was 194 people and 88 vehicles, according to the statement on the report’s findings read by Radebe. Another 296 private security officers were deployed at the expense of the event organiser. The organisers also deployed two fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters to ferry their guests from the base to Sun City. This was authorised as a package linked to the already-issued clearance for Flight JAI 9900 (the Jet Airways plane carrying the wedding guests), Radebe said.
20/05/13 Renjeni Manusamy/Daily Maverick
