adminCape Town – The government will buy a new VVIP jet for the presidency, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said yesterday.
She, however, rubbished that it would cost up to R4 billion. “Buying the VVIP aircraft, we will. But not for [President Jacob] Zuma. There will be a president after Zuma. The VVIP aircraft is not being procured because there is President Zuma who will use it,” she told reporters ahead of her budget vote speech in Parliament.
There would be another president after Zuma retired in 2019, even if he was from another party.
“The VVIP aircraft will still be there.”
It would be bought to ensure that government officials, the president and deputy president, were always safe.
Mapisa-Nqakula said they had never mentioned the cost of the aircraft, and she did not know where the R4bn figure had come from.
“We would never ever sit here and say we will spend R4 billion on aircraft. Not when South Africans are starving and students are calling for fees to fall.”
It would be irresponsible of her to mention a figure of how much they were willing to spend. She said they had wanted to get the new jet by March, but had missed the deadline. As a consequence, government had to charter planes whenever there was a problem with the existing jet.
At present, government was preparing to lease an aircraft, while waiting to buy the new one.
“One thing we are not going to do is to compromise the security, safety of our principals,” she said.
She said several times this year, Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa were left stranded or late for events due to breakdowns of the presidential Boeing 737, known as Inkwazi.
Meanwhile, Mapisa-Nqakula has slammed EFF leader Julius Malema’s warning of “soldiers turning against President Jacob Zuma” as reckless and irresponsible.
During the party’s manifesto launch earlier this month, Malema warned Zuma to leave office before the army turned against him. “Those soldiers are going to turn their guns against you,” Malema told thousands of supporters at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Mapisa-Nqakula said she did not know what the utterances were based on.
Addressing media ahead of her budget vote speech in Parliament yesterday, she slammed the insinuation that the defence force might turn against the state.
“This defence force is one of patriots, of people who understand what South Africa’s interests are and what they should be, who understand we’re the last line of defence in South Africa,” she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula said Malema was implying that the defence force was not patriotic.
“This defence force has been tested.”
She said they had not interfered during political challenges in the country, including those at the doorstep of the ruling party, and if there was any such threat, they would know about it, but there was no possibility of that for now. — AP
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