The Democratic Alliance (DA) has repeated its call on International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to pay back R235 000 she spent on chartering a private jet.
The jet was chartered during a state visit to Norway earlier this month, after Nkoana-Mashabane refused to allow her handbag to be passed through a scanner at Gardemoen International Airport in Oslo, and missed her commercial flight.
Her department said at the time that the Vienna Convention exempted diplomats from luggage searches at airports and that the minister was right to stand her ground.
DA MP Lindiwe Mazibuko said on Sunday this was not correct.
“The Vienna Convention does not exempt the luggage of diplomatic officials from pre-flight x-ray scanning,” she said in a statement.
Article 36 of the convention merely prohibited the routine inspection of diplomats’ luggage unless it was suspected to contain items “prohibited by the law or controlled by the quarantine regulations of the receiving State”.
The convention said nothing about scanning the luggage in an x-ray machine.
“In fact, according to the provisions of Annex 17 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation on Aviation Security, diplomats and their personal baggage must always be subject to routine pre-boarding screening as it applies to civil aviation security.”
Mazibuko said the department had cited the Vienna Convention as a “convenient red herring” to spare the minister embarrassment.
“The rules state clearly that she should have allowed her handbag to be scanned by airport security officials.”
‘Wasteful expenditure’
An Oslo-based travel agent, Airbroker, confirmed that a one-way charter flight to Sofia could cost as much as R260 000 for an executive jet, depending on its size and the number of passengers on board.
An anonymous department official said the “unnecessary and wasteful expenditure” on a private jet excluded the cost of the first-class commercial tickets for Nkoana-Mashabane and members of her entourage that had been forfeited.
It is unclear what the minister was carrying in her handbag and why she was keen to avoid security screening.
In its response, the department insisted that the Vienna Convention exempted diplomats from luggage searches at airports and that the minister “as the country’s top diplomat” was right to stand her ground.
“[There was nothing in her handbag] which could not be disclosed. This matter was not about the contents of the luggage. It’s a matter of principle in line with the Vienna Convention,” said spokesperson Clayson Monyela.
‘Not embarrassing’
“The minister’s behaviour was not embarrassing — it ensured that South Africa is treated with the necessary dignity that is accorded to any minister of international relations in terms of customary international law.”
A spokesperson for Gardermoen, Jo Kobro, confirmed that there had been an incident.
Referring only to “a member of the South African delegation” whom the Mail & Guardian had independently established was Nkoana-Mashabane — Kobro said airport security staff had not been able to perform “a total security check on her” and that a “very audible discussion” had ensued.
The department official described the discussion in less diplomatic terms. “Emotional shouting and arguments ensued with the security personnel as to their audacity for requesting that South Africa’s minister of international relations have her bag x-rayed.
The minister was in such a rage that she refused to board the plane that was booked for the delegation,” said the official.
Kobro explained that airport security staff was bound by “common European Union regulations”.
Marit Kvarum of Norway’s Civil Aviation Authority said the country had adopted European Union provisions under which only royalty and heads of state were exempt from airport luggage checks, provided certain conditions were met.
Kobro said, “Here at Oslo airport we cannot deal with government officials from other countries differently from how we treat our own. The prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, also has to go through security checks and we have never experienced any problems with him or other Norwegian ministers.
Not exempt
“Incidents like this almost never happen at the airport. I remember one single incident with an ambassador who also did not want to be checked. He was also denied access to the terminal.”
Kobro added that the airport security staff had “acted correctly and decisively in this situation”.
A well-placed Norwegian official said the South Africans were “furious” about the way Nkoana-Mashabane had been treated.
It is unclear what happened next.
Several members of the South African entourage may have boarded the earlier commercial flight that was scheduled to land, with one stopover, in Sofia at 4pm on September 2.
Kobro said Nkoana-Mashabane and the inner circle of her entourage all left the terminal building.
According to Hilde Steinfeld, spokesperson for the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs, a ministry representative who had escorted Nkoana-Mashabane to the airport then accompanied her back to the Hotel Grand in Oslo.
“The ministry was not asked to assist in the further travel arrangements of Ms Nkoana-Mashabane’s delegation,” said Steinfeld, adding that the South African high commission in Oslo took over the arrangements.
The high commission referred all questions to the department. — Sapa, M&G