The SAAF Forum

The cash-strapped SA National Defence Force (SANDF) forked out millions of rand on a chartered Air Zimbabwe flight to bring home eight trainee pilots who had failed their eye tests in Cuba.

Already battling budget cuts, a crumbling infrastructure and an internal board of inquiry into nearly R1bn of wasteful expenditure, the latest saga involves the SANDF's vaunted Cuban mil itary training exchange programme, code-named Project Thusano.

Three weeks after their arrival in August, eight of the 12 SA Air Force (SAAF) trainees were told they had failed an eye test conducted with a BIC ballpoint pen and were kicked off the programme. The test required trainees to follow the movement of the pen with their eyes.

The group spent the next five months cutting grass with pangas unt il the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) turned to the courts in a bid to force the Sandf to bring them home, finally sparking some action but at a huge cost.

A Sunday Times Daily investigation, based on data from the international flight tracking website Flight Radar, shows that between August 2021 and January 2022 the SANDF chartered two airlines to ferry personnel to and from Cuba at an estimated cost of several million rand.

The first chartered flight, an SAA A340-600 Airbus, was to get the 12 pilots to Cuba via Ghana on August 28. Based on aviation industry data, that flight, which had 200 SANDF personnel on board, cost the flat-broke entity an estimated R7m.

In January, facing an urgent court application in the Pretoria high court after fai ling to bring the eight home, the SANDF chartered another aircraft.

Air Zimbabwe leased a Boeing 767-200ER for the flight.

Aviation industry data show that though the direct cash cost of operating a Boeing 767-200ER is $8,3000 (R127,766) per hour, charter rates, which include additional costs such as insurance, pilots, navigation and ground handling fees and on-board catering, can cost up to $27,000 (R415,687) per hour.

That means the operating cost would have been between R2.1m and R7m.

Flight Radar data show that Air Zimbabwe's flight UM450 took off on January 19, flew via Gambia and landed in Havana 17 hours after take-off. It remained parked on the tarmac at the airport in Havana for a week, adding to the charter costs.

The aircraft took off on January 26, flying via Cape Verde and landing in Johannesburg on January 27.

Sandf sources said the Air Zimbabwe charter was done on an emergency basis to stave off an urgent application brought in the Pretoria high court by Sandu on behalf of one of the trainees, Heine de Jager, who was since resigned from the air force.

Sandu secretary-general Pikkie Greeff said the application, which was to be heard the day the eight returned home, was brought "because for five months the Sandf simply refused to bring them home".

The Sandf has declined to comment on the charters but confirmed four trainees remained in Cuba while eight had
returned. Seven of these had undergone medical tests again and were continuing their military training.

Several of the trainees, who are still in the SANDF, said they spent five months languishing on Cuban military bases
cutting grass with pangas.

"We totally wasted our time. We were meant to be there to learn how to fly. We went across not knowing Spanish, yet we were given psychological tests in Spanish. They failed us using a ballpoint pen. What kind of test is that?"

De Jager, who joined the SAAF in January 2020, said it was his dream to become a fighter pilot.

He said shortly before he joined he underwent extensive medical, psychological and psychometric testing.

He said after six months of basic training and deployment to Hoedspruit he went on an officers' formative training course that continued until June 2021.

"While on the course, we were informed we were selected for training in Cuba."

De Jager said when they arrived in Cuba they quarantined for two weeks as part of Covid-19 protocols.

"We then had to redo our pilot medical tests, which lasted a week.

"On the first day one of the doctors held a BIC ballpoint pen in front of my nose and moved it rapidly back and forth. Of the 12 of us, eight failed this rapid eye movement test. We were told our eyesight was poor and we could not be pilots.

"There was no way that test was scientific."

He said while they were to have been returned home almost immediately, they remained in Cuba for five more
months living in appalling conditions.

He said after landing in Johannesburg they were taken to Pretoria.

"Senior officers told us we would deploy on February 5 to the military academy in Saldanha to continue our training. We were told our Cuban tests had no effect on our pilot training here.

"We were told we would have to do three years of academic training relating to defence management, then go on to
ground school training and eventually on to pilot training, but that the pilot training would only begin in eight years because of backlogs.

"I resigned the very next day. People at the top do not care about what goes on below them. I couldn't be part of this
failed system."

Neither Air Zimbabwe nor SAA responded to questions around the saga.

SANDF spokesperson Brig-Gen Andries Mahapa failed to comment on questions on the costs of SAA and Air
Zimbabwe charters or on the trainees' medical examinations and records stating they were "classified".

He also did not disclose details on the fate of the seven trainees who returned.

"The seven students are undergoing SA Military Flight medicals. The results are being processed. The results are in
process before commencing flying training."