Defence Minister confirms VVIP jet will be bought
The Defence Minister has lambasted the media saying the ministry has never said it would spend R4-billion rand on a jet to ferry the president and deputy president.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula briefed the media today ahead of her Budget Vote Debate in Parliament.
The amount has been bandied about for several months with reports the new jet will have private bedroom suite, a bathroom, and a conference room.
Mapisa-Nqakula says the claims have created a frenzy.
"Based on what - I don't know because we have never, ever given South Africans a figure for the procurement of this VVIP aircraft. There's never been a figure given to the media by Armscor, the air force or the whole of SANDF but somebody decided somewhere to sit down and figure out the kind of aircraft which we will probably need and decided that this act is likely to cost us a certain amount of money without any consultation with us," she said.
But Mapisa-Nqakula has confirmed the procurement of the new VVIP plane is going to happen.
"We will be buying a VVIP aircraft. It is not being procured because there is President Zuma who is going to use it.
"There is always going to be a president in the Republic of South Africa. Irrespective of who comes into office whether that person belongs to another party or not, the VVIP aircraft will still be there," she said.
(File photo)