Africa-Press – South-Africa. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has sought to downplay the stranding of a South African plane carrying security personnel and journalists in Warsaw, Poland, last week during President Cyril Ramaphosa and other African leaders’ peace mission to Russia and Ukriane, as a “small issue”.
Instead of focusing on “the negative” of a shambolic trip to Russia and Ukraine, the South African media should focus on the significant milestone”, Ntshavheni said on Thursday while briefing the media on the previous day’s Cabinet meeting.
She added that perhaps government shouldn’t take the media along on future trips.
The trip saw 120 police protection services personnel, led by Major General Wally Rhoode, the head of the Presidential Protection Service, stranded for 26 hours in the plane at the Warsaw Chopin Airport, along with a contingent of journalists. Polish authorities refused to allow the South Africans to disembark due to issues with the PPS documentation and permits.
With members of his security team stranded in Poland, Ramaphosa and other African leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Friday, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday.
While Zelensky and Putin’s responses to the peace talks were lukewarm at best, Ramaphosa hailed the mission as a success.
Answering questions on the issue of the stranded plane, Ntshavheni said: “On the Poland issue, we must first clarify, there was nobody detained. When a plane has landed and there is no clearance, or there is no [thing] called a detention, and we want to indicate, on our part, everything was done, according to the normal protocols that are done.”
She added that an SAA plane had been chartered for the trip, and not a commercial flight.
“There were no dangerous goods, there were weapons that protect, for the protection of our president,” said Ntshavheni.
“It’s normal, all presidents as they travel internationally, they travel with their security and their weapons and there are permits that allow for them to come in.”
Regarding the diplomatic relations with Poland, she said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) was “considering measures to be taken, additional to the work that have been done”.
“We have indicated, through Dirco and the Ministry of Police – the police were the clients of SAA and they were the one transporting the security personnel – they will give further detail on the matter.”
She said Dirco and the police would say “where have we as a country been offended in terms of diplomatic protocols” and that preventative measures would then be taken “through the necessary channels”.
Ntshavheni said Ramaphosa wasn’t without protection in Ukraine and Russia, and that there had been an advance team “with full protection of the president”.
“He was at no stage under threat.”
‘Significant milestone’
Ntshavheni then said: “And also, what I do not know why, as South Africans, and South African media in particular, we are obsessed with finding wrong with an initiative that is being celebrated worldwide with the effort and the initiative of the African leaders.
“It is the first mission in the world, on peace in Ukraine, that had leaders meeting both the Ukraine president and also the president of the Russian Federation.
“And that milestone, on it own, is a significant milestone.
“And those matters that have been discussed is making a significant milestone into progressing the possibility of peaceful resolution of the conflict,” she said.
“So the focus of our negativity of our media in South Africa, should not deter us from the efforts that this government and the African leaders are making in resolving the conflict.
“[It is] the first time that Africans have taken the initiative where others have dared not go.
“And I think as a country, we must focus on that, despite our obsession with wanting to find negativity with this government. We must focus on the good that government is doing, and give credit where it is due.
“We will accept the criticisms where the criticisms must be levelled. But where we have done well, commend us.”
Ntshavheni added:
She said they had taken a media delegation along to “provide a different view of what was happening”.
“And maybe it was not ideal for us and we have learnt our lesson, that maybe we should not take the media on this kind of trips. We must just cover ourselves there and go.
“We should not be lashed for a small matter. The focus is a peace mission.”
Ntshavheni said they extended their apologies to the journalists who had found themselves “caught up in that diplomatic incident”.
Asked directly if Wally Rhoode would be investigated for his handling of logistical arrangements of the security personnel’s travel to Eastern Europe, Ntshavheni said: “I don’t know who said Wally Rhoode was the one who organised the logistics for the venture.”
She did not want to “speculate” further on this topic.
While Ntshavheni described the peace mission as an African “initiative where others have dared not go”, it has since emerged that French businessman Jean-Yves Ollivier through his Brazzaville Foundation, and South African Ivor Ichikowitz, the founder and former executive chairperson of the Paramount Group, a large South African weapons manufacturer, played a significant role in facilitating the initiative.
They were present at a virtual meeting hosted by Ramaphosa with the other African leaders on 5 June.
Ntshavheni didn’t respond to News24’s question on what the Brazzaville Foundation’s role was in the peace mission.
In May, Ollivier told News24 that Ramaphosa wasn’t initially involved in setting up the peace delegation, but joined sometime last year at the Brazzaville Foundation’s invitation.
According to the Icikowitz Family Foundation, Ichikowitz “served in a supporting capacity as a friend of the Brazzaville Foundation” since the middle of 2022.
The Presidency earlier this week refused to answer any questions about Ollivier and Ichikowitz.
Ntshavheni said that, following the peace mission: South Africa will participate in the African Union-Russia Summit in Moscow in July, on the sidelines of which, our government will also take the opportunity to further engage Russia on matters the two Presidents undertook to give their consideration.”
Ramaphosa’s national security adivisor, Sydney Mufamadi “will attend a Peace Summit, convened by President Zelenksy, that will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August”.
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