By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the cabinet ministers who facilitated the visit of the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, to South Africa will give details about the visit.
Ramaphosa said the ministers owed an explanation to the people of South Africa on the permission given to facilitate the UAE presidential visit.
The wealthy ruler landed at Bulembu Airport in the Eastern Cape last week, along with an entourage of 500, including other members of the UAE royal family, staff and top artists, for Ramadaan celebrations.
The royal family and their guests reportedly brought their own furniture, cars and gym equipment for their two-week stay in the Eastern Cape.
Al Nahyan spend two weeks at a private game resort he built from scratch earlier this year, after buying a big piece of land two years ago.
Bulembu Airport, which was the only airport of the Ciskei homeland, was decommissioned in the 1990s. It was the only airport in the province with the potential for improvements to meet the standards of the UAE planes.
Meanwhile Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the decision by the government to allow al Nahyan and more than 600 people to land at the Airport.
Motsoaledi said he is allowed to designate any place as a point of entry into the country if necessary.
He said the assigned point of entry was legal, according to Section 9(a) of the Immigration Act.
Motsoaledi confirmed that the UAE president arrived at the airport with an entourage of 680 people and that they all have the necessary documents to enter the country.
The act allows a minister to designate any point; it doesn’t have to be an airport. It doesn’t have to be a sea point.
“When you do so, you must apply all the immigration laws. You must send immigration officers there with their steps if they are good; you must call in SARS; if there are weapons, you must call in border police,” said Motsoaledi.
The UAE president landing has exposed the country to a negative media spotlight as it came 10 years after the infamous landing of the Gupta family’s plane at Waterkloof in 2013.