Johannesburg – Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the decision by the government to allow United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan and more than 600 people to land at Bhisho Airport.
The ruler, who included other members of the UAE royal family, staff, and top artists who were to perform for the family to mark the end of Ramadaan, landed in the Eastern Cape last Wednesday on a runway he reportedly built with his money, without any security clearance.
Motsoaledi said he is allowed to designate any place as a point of entry into the country if necessary.
He said the assigned point of entry was legal, according to Section 9(a) of the Immigration Act.
Motsoaledi confirmed that the UAE president arrived at the airport with an entourage of 680 people and that they all have the necessary documents to enter the country.
"The act allows a minister to designate any point; it doesn't have to be an airport. It doesn't have to be a sea point.
“When you do so, you must apply all the immigration laws. You must send immigration officers there with their steps if they are good; you must call in SARS; if there are weapons, you must call in border police," said Motsoaledi.
ATM president Vuyo Zungula said Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane bends the rules to suit the wealthy following the leasing of Bhisho Airport to the ruler.
However, Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Zuko Godlimpi, dismissed the notion that the airport is being leased out to the president.
He said the airport is the property of the Transport Department in the province and has not been leased to anybody.
"I think what Zungula is saying is based on a news article that misrepresented the facts and suggested that there is an intention that has already been done to the effect of leasing out the airport to the family of the president.
“That's not true; that is not going to happen, and that will never happen. Even if such a conversation were to be heard. It would have to be related to a discussion at an investment level with the country and not just the family," said Godlimpi.
He said the president and the family entered the country directly from the UAE to Bhisho airport. This was done through an application to temporarily designate the airport as an international port of entry.
Godlimpi said all requirements at the international port of entry had to be satisfied, which included customs and immigration, and that happened.
Zungula said his party condemned the landing of a plane.
He has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking for an explanation of what special exemptions were made to facilitate the use of the airport.
The SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) confirmed that it had inspected the airport to ensure compliance.
"The ATM was taken aback when media reports exposed that the president of the UAE not only landed at Bulembu Airport in Bhisho but that he also upgraded the airport to the tune of R20 million," Zungula said.
He said the landing has exposed the country to a negative media spotlight as it came 10 years after the infamous landing of the Gupta family’s plane at Waterkloof in 2013.
"However, this time around, the magnitude of the saga seems to be 10 times larger. Has South Africa become a banana republic where people just develop their own landing strips and land their planes?"
In what looks like a repeat of the Gupta Waterkloof landing in 2013, the royal family and their guests are said to have brought their own furniture, cars, and gym equipment for their two-week stay in the Eastern Cape.
The Star