ANC to pay for SANDF flight to Zim, says Ace – the Citizen

The ANC will reimburse the government for the SANDF flight in which six of its leaders “traveled” with Defense Minister and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to Zimbabwe last week, said ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule.

The ANC delegation traveled to Zimbabwe to meet with the ruling Zanu-PF party on a crisis in that country. Zanu-PF has flatly denied that there is a crisis.

An outrage ensued when it emerged that the ANC leaders used the Falcon 900 aircraft of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF), which was used to transport Mapisa-Nqakula, on their visit to Zanu-PF.

ALSO READ: ANC’s Zim’s Journey: Ramaphosa and Mapisa-Nqakula Not Free Yet

Various political parties and civil society organizations have insisted that the party should pay for the use of government transportation, and also that the ANC delegation should go into quarantine in terms of the Covid-19 shutdown regulations, as they crossed an international border. It was also unclear whether they were allowed to fly to Zimbabwe, as required by regulation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa asked Mapisa-Nqakula to provide him with a report on the flight, and at least two complaints have been made to the public protector on the matter.

However, Magashule said in a statement on the trip on Tuesday that “we traveled in an unusual way and profusely humiliated ourselves where we went wrong during the confinement and we will reimburse the government for costs incurred on behalf of our delegation.”

He added that “our delegation is in quarantine in line with our confinement.”

It is not yet clear where the delegation will be quarantined, or how much the ANC will pay the government for the flight.

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