Hired VIP aircraft costing millions

The SA Air Force has had to spend more than R5 million on hired aircraft in the past month due to President Thabo Mbeki's and Deputy-president Jacob Zuma's external commitments.

This because an existing medium range presidential jet is being upgraded in Switzerland - even though a new aircraft is being bought at a cost of R600 million. In Zuma's case an aircraft had to be chartered because his group expanded from nine to 12 and an air force plane would have been too small. Mbeki's present aircraft, a Falcon 900, has been receiving a service and refit in Switzerland over the past month, as well as being equipped with a satellite telephone communication and new navigation system. The SAAF could not reveal the expenditure involved, but told the Afrikaans daily Beeld the upgrading would cost "several million rand". This upgrading resulted in Mbeki having to fly to England, the US and Italy recently on chartered aircraft. The flights cost R4.2 million, which is much more than it would have cost to use the Falcon, and money the air force could ill afford with its limited budget, the paper said. As it turned out, Mbeki returned to the country from the G8 summit on a commercial flight as the hired aircraft was "uncomfortable." Mbeki's office had previously rationalised the purchase of an intercontinental Boeing BBJ for Mbeki on security grounds, saying the leader could not fly commercial flights for safety's sake.

Defence Systems Daily