National police commissioner Jackie Selebi and his top managers leased a luxury executive jet at police expense to attend an Interpol Africa regional conference in the resort town of Arusha, near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania last week.
A source close to the aircraft charter company said the South African Police Service (SAPS) delegation made use of a Gulfstream 3 executive jet and revealed the bill for the trip was about R500 000.
The aircraft travelled to Tanzania on Tuesday last week and brought the delegation back on Saturday, four days later.
According to police spokesperson Sally de Beer, a delegation of 12 SAPS members, including the national commissioner and deputy national commissioner Magda Stander, attended the eighth meeting of the heads of the National Drugs Service and the 19th Interpol Africa regional conference, both in Arusha.
Selebi attended in his capacity as the national commissioner of the SAPS and as president of Interpol.
Inquiries by the Mail & Guardian indicate a return business class ticket from Johannesburg to Kilimanjaro would cost about R11 500 per person, meaning commercial travel options would have cost the SAPS a total of about R138 000.
Ironically, in his opening address Selebi called on members to find more funds in their budgets to contribute to Interpol, as the organisation was unsustainable.
The SAPS noted: ‘The method of transportation was by means of a chartered aircraft. No SAPS aircraft could accommodate the number of passengers involved. The chartering of an aircraft was the most efficient and cost-effective means of conveying the SAPS delegation. Apparently SAA actually cancelled its direct flight to Arusha.â€
However, SAA flies daily to Dar es Salaam, where Air Tanzania connections to Kilimanjaro International are available.
Air Tanzania also has daily flights from Johannesburg to Kilimanjaro via Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam.
De Beer indicated the SAPS regarded queries about the trip as nitpicking. ‘Please be advised that the SAPS has no intention of responding to petty questions on a weekly basis, when we have more important issues at hand.†Among those more important issues was the increase in the illicit drug trade on the continent, which Selebi also highlighted in his Arusha address.
‘It is our responsibility — nobody else’s — that we as police organisations must come together to address this because it creates problems,†he told the conference.
‘Not only does it destroy human beings, it destroys economies. It creates a second economy; it creates conditions for corruption within our organisations as police organisations. It creates conditions for corruption in a broader society and other authorities such as governments. It is a matter that we need to address in earnest.â€
Since last year Selebi has kept his silence on the less petty questions surrounding his relationship with alleged drug smuggler Glenn Agliotti.