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SOUTH AFRICA’S GOVERNMENT announced the suspension of a slew of officials and military personnel today, as it tried to limit the political and diplomatic fallout from a lavish Indian wedding.
A gaggle of top ministers appeared in public to explain how a rich Indian family with ties to President Jacob Zuma landed a Airbus A330 laden with wedding guests at a military base without permits.
The passengers were guests of the Gupta family, a major political donor to the ruling ANC and one of the country’s richest families.
Allegations of cronyism
The scandal has rocked South Africa and left Zuma facing allegations of cronyism from political foes and rare public rebukes from his allies.
In a statement, Zuma’s office said the leader welcomed the probes into the incident by the relevant government departments.
“The president has emphasised that the investigation and the manner in which this matter is handled should not be allowed to impact negatively on the warm and friendly historical relations” between the two countries, it added.
Attempting to defuse the crisis, minister after minister today insisted “no executive authority” was granted for the plane to land at Waterkloof airforce base outside Pretoria on Tuesday.
Five officials suspended
Justice Minister Jeffrey Radebe – flanked by the ministers for home affairs, foreign affairs, police and defence – announced that five officials and military personnel had been suspended from duty.
He vowed to bring to justice those who “brought the country into disrepute” and said a full investigation will report within seven days.
Arrests
Two police officers and one reservist have also been arrested in connection with a blue-light escort that took the guests from the airport to the Sun City resort where the wedding took place.
It was claimed that most of the vehicles in the cavalcade were privately hired and illegally fitted with blue lights, although at least one police vehicle was present.
But the finger of blame was also pointed at India’s high Commissioner to South Africa, who appeared to have asked for landing rights.
“We have a diplomatic incident at hand,” said Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, vowing to use diplomatic channels to voice its displeasure.
Relations between South Africa and India are already strained following a BRICS summit in Durban in March, when Zuma failed to have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Zuma did manage bilateral meetings with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.
The wedding party left South Africa today, but the political fallout is likely to continue for weeks.
One of the guests Rajesh Gupta, told AFP that they did not intend to “breach any law,” as the delegation waited to board their flight through the country’s main hub, OR Tambo International Airport.
“We are law-abiding citizens, we want to follow the rules,” he said.
‘We don’t want to embarrass anybody’
“We don’t want to embarrass anybody, we don’t want to create any problems for anybody in South Africa,” he said.
Some members of the party were seen reading newspapers about the wedding scandal, which has dominated headlines since their controversial arrival on Tuesday.
The trade union umbrella group COSATU, which forms one pillar of the ANC’s ruling “tripartite alliance” expressed its anger over the issue.
“We still await any proper explanation or justification for the decision to allow this invasion of a national security key-point by a bunch of private individuals,” said secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi.
“We must demand the fullest possible investigation into the whole incident and the real culprits exposed – not scapegoats from among the officials, who surely could not have taken such an obviously politically sensitive decision.”
Reflecting the ties between Zuma and the Gupta family, two of the president’s children have served as directors of Gupta-owned firms, according to South Africa’s companies database.
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5%. Who makes this suff up! More like 25% at least.
@Cars: Facts mostly.
@Cars: it’s a rolling year stat….. It’s up 18.4% from January 2021. Maybe that’s what you refer to. Google “CSO CPI inflation calculator”….. An eye opening tool
@Daniel Roche: skewed statistics more like. If only it was 5%, that’s fairytale stuff to feed to the general population. The current government (and previous) failed miserably to deliver. Their only option to stand any chance of remaining in power will be to try indoctrinate the citizens with complete BS to paint a fictional picture of delivering.
Ii’ a lot more than that, grocery prices have soared.
5% ? put 2 if front or the 5 and it’s correct
Diesel gone up over 10c in Circle K in two weeks in Tallaght
@Eddienowy Byrne: same here in Wicklow
@Eddienowy Byrne: just in time now that the government are putting on 5c on Friday on diesel and 7c on petrol .. they hate giving people a break
@Gavin Kelly: That would imply that a break has ever been given.
@Gavin Kelly: Especially handy when they can claim their fuel and expenses.
@Gavin Kelly: That’s a lie and you know it,I’m not agreeing with it but at least tell the truth,that is a major problem and why people will vote FF or FG,they can’t trust the other side,better the devil you know, maybe tell the truth.
@George Vladisavljevic: You know the old saying ” All pigs are equal but some pigs are more equal”, Animal Farm.
5% and the rest. They having a laugh
Fuel rocketing back up as well since they put taxes back on ….this will lead to the increase of prices on everything
Full shopping bags are down 50%! And the Price has increased by 25%!
That’s just fact.
Who ever compiled this,please let us all know where you shop.
@Thomas: I shop in German supermarket and the numbers look about right to me, for the period over the last 12 months.
Definitely not 25% or even +40% as claimed here.
But maybe it’s my shopping habit – very little processed food on much meat either.
@Wolfgang Bonow: me also,the numbers may not be as high as 25 percent in some cases,but nothing is near as low as 5 percent.
@Wolfgang Bonow: even the German supermarkets have increased prices big time way more than the 5% spoke abouts.
They can no way still call themselves discount supermarkets
@Wolfgang Bonow: I do too.
But I noticed bread had increased in price by 17% between my last 2 visits.
These so called “journslist” from the journal printing lies and spreading falsehoods for the irish government..
Shame on you all at the journal,
@Adam: I agree,the authors of this article obviously know this is way down on the reality,but go ahead and publish it anyway.
Absolute rubbish. Inflation is really running at about 43% easily. I haven’t changed my spending at all and unfortunately for banks their apps are the real key to finding out just how bad inflation really is. My app had my spend at 43% higher than this time last year and I’ve actually cut back on certain things.
5%??? try 15 or 20% with some of the price increases ive seen lately……greed greed and more greed
They will most definitely need revision,
Brown Thomas getting a Lidl ‘middle isle’ this week apparently
It can’t be that number…. Most of the prices have increased by 30 to 50 percent… That are lying.
5%? Do they take us for fools or what…And as a lot of comments state the fuel increases will add to inflation even more, not to mention the carbon tax coming in the budget.
have your say