Durban - The DA has written to the acting chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Albert Seabi, to summon Major-General Wally Rhoode, the head of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Protection Unit, to appear in Parliament.
DA MP Andrew Whitfield said this was being done to ensure Rhoode “is held accountable for the shambolic handling of the joyride to Warsaw airport, Poland”.
“It has been widely reported that the presidential mission, where the aircraft, carrying an approximately 120-person entourage and alleged crates of weapons, was refused entry by the Polish government. Reports suggest that this joyride that lacked planning and flight clearance carried a cost of between R14 million and R16m,” Whitfield said.
Party leader John Steenhuisen earlier said Ramaphosa also needed to be held responsible after extra security personnel and journalists had to abandon their trip in Poland due to some documents allegedly not being in order.
Steenhuisen said the issue was around the second plane, who it was procured from, and that there was poor planning and logistics that led to a large amount of fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
“This in a country struggling with its own infrastructure problems around electricity, water and sanitation. To be wasting large amounts of money on expenditure like this in this environment does not make sense.
Steenhuisen said the South African Air Force had warned Rhoode before they departed about what was required, but the advice was ignored.
“We believe Rhoode and the rest of the presidential protection unit have questions to answer,” Steenhuisen said in an interview on Monday.
Whitfield said Rhoode’s unofficial interview, not authorised by the president, was “defamatory and baseless, but it came across as the South African government’s official stance”.
“This is not the first instance that Major-General Rhoode’s actions have been called into disrepute. He was a central figure in the Phala Phala scandal in which he conducted unauthorised investigations at the behest of the president and used taxpayers’ money to fund flights across South Africa’s borders.
“We call upon Mr Seabi to put South Africa first, and not the ANC, and urgently arrange for the committee to reconvene.”