The provision of “VIP” flights by the South African Air Force (SAAF) is becoming murkier by the day.

Last week President Jacob Zuma was transported on “Inkwazi”, the presidential Boeing Business Jet, to the United States. The President travelled to the United States ahead of South Africa assuming the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council. The Boeing Business Jet is operated by the SAAF’s Squadron 21 and is back in service after three months of maintenance in Europe.

However, the second aircraft – a Bombadier Global Express XRS – was reportedly chartered from a private company to “shadow” the presidential Boeing Business Jet. The second aircraft was reportedly used as a back-up in case mechanical failures were experienced by the presidential Boeing Business Jet.

This is reportedly not common practice and raises a number of questions, including:
why it was necessary to charter a second back-up aircraft, as a contingency in case of mechanical failure, if the air force had complete confidence in the operation of the presidential Boeing Business Jet; and
if the air force did not have confidence in the jet, and as a result decided to charter a second back-up aircraft, were the president and the passengers on the presidential jet safe?
We will therefore submit parliamentary questions to determine:
why it was necessary to charter a second back-up aircraft;
the names of any passengers that may have been onboard the second back-up aircraft;
the cost of chartering the second back-up aircraft; and
whether the safety of the President and passengers on the Boeing Business Jet was compromised at any time during the recent trip to the United States.
We have to get to the bottom of why it was necessary to charter the second back-up aircraft to shadow the presidential Boeing Business Jet during the President’s recent visit to the United States.