We didn't know it was a Gupta jet: government

She has been addressing reporters in Pretoria today after it emerged a Gupta-owned private jet was leased at millions of rand, to ferry deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and several ministers to Japan this week.

Mapisa-Nqakula says they merely give guidelines for the selection process.

"We have absolutely no control over who owns an aircraft which is chartered by executives. Somebody was even saying the deputy president himself should have said no, he's not going to use this aircraft. But the point is the principals never know whose aircraft they're using. As long as it's a South African company, as long as the crew it vetted by State security that's it," she said. 

Two years ago, the well-connected Gupta family were controversially cleared to land a Jet Airways plane full of wedding guests at the Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria.

(File photo: Gallo Images)