Parliament cannot dodge hearings on President Jacob Zuma's shadow planes
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that Jerome Maake, Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, is deliberately stalling scheduling a special hearing to focus on President Jacob Zuma "shadow planes" and the shambles in the South African Air Force's 21 Squadron (VIP Squadron).
I wrote to Jerome Maake on 25 January 2012 to request that a special hearing be scheduled to look into the shambles in the SAAF VIP Squadron.
The proximate cause for requesting the special hearing was the so-called shadow planes fiasco involved two back-up aircraft - a Bombadier Global Express XRS and an Airbus A340 (200 Series) - that were used to "shadow" President Jacob Zuma's Boeing Business Jet during a recent visit to the United States.
The shadow planes fiasco forms part of a series of worrying incidents involving the VIP Squadron, which include:
- An emergency landing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo involving Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in 2009;
- an emergency landing in New Zealand involving Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in 2011;
- mechanical failure of a chartered aircraft resulting in the scrapping of one leg of a state visit to Finland, Sweden and Denmark involving Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in 2011;
- the use of a controversial mercenary pilot to fly a chartered aircraft to the United States involving President Jacob Zuma in 2011;
- a flawed R800 million tender to lease two Embraer Lineage 1000 business jets for the South African Air Force in 2011; and
- an air force pilot allegedly "borrowing" an aircraft to visit a friend in Botswana after stealing a petrol card from the VIP Squadron in 2012.
There is clearly something very wrong in the VIP Squadron.
However, despite these compelling reasons to schedule a hearing on the shambles in the VIP Squadron, I have received no substantive response from Mr Maake in over a month.
What makes matters worse is that this is not the first time I have requested hearings in this regard. I requested similar hearings on 21 February 2011, 06 April 2011 and 09 November 2011.
The fact is that rather than taking action, Parliament has chosen to stick its head in the sand. And it has done so for more than a year.
Enough is enough.
I have therefore written to Mr Cedric Frolick, House Chairperson of Committees, Oversight and ICT at Parliament, asking him to intervene and ensure that a special hearing be scheduled to look into the shambles in the VIP Squadron.
We cannot sit back and allow the current state of affairs to continue.
Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, February 27 2012
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