South Africa Is Outraged by a Shortcut to a Wedding
The use of a military air base to transport civilian guests to the wedding
of a wealthy family has set off anger.
http://nyti.ms/16AzAJZ
South Africa Is Outraged by a Shortcut to a Wedding
The use of a military air base to transport civilian guests to the wedding
of a wealthy family has set off anger.
http://nyti.ms/16AzAJZ
South Africa Is Outraged by a Shortcut to a Wedding
JOHANNESBURG - It was to be an affair to remember. The bride was a
daughter of a powerful and politically connected immigrant family. Her
parents booked all 338 rooms in one of South Africa's most lavish resorts,
complete with exclusive access to its artificial beach. Kathakali dancers
with painted faces and turbaned Rajasthani musicians from the family's
native country, India, performed for the guests. A pontoon carried the
happy couple across an imitation Roman bath to greet their guests.
But the ultimate luxury for the wedding guests came upon their
arrival. Rather than disembarking among hoi polloi at the Johannesburg
commercial airport, guests from India in a chartered jet were allowed to
land at one of the country's highly secure military bases. Visitors were
then ushered to the wedding site, the Palace of the Lost City, in luxury
vehicles accompanied by a sprawling security escort, sirens blaring.
The use of a military air base to transport civilian guests to the
wedding of a member of the Gupta family, who are close allies of President
Jacob Zuma, has set off outrage, saddling Mr. Zuma with his latest
scandal.
Even some of the president's biggest supporters have jumped on the
bandwagon.
"We are not living in a banana republic," Jeremy Cronin, a leader
of the South African Communist Party, said in a speech on Thursday. "We
are not a playground for rich foreigners to come and occupy our space, to
come and take over a national key point."
The wedding of Vega Gupta and Aakash Jahajgarhia, like most Indian
weddings, took place over several days and involved multiple ceremonies.
Top government officials, including Mr. Zuma, were invited as guests, but
Mr.
Zuma canceled plans to attend amid the uproar over the plane.
The African National Congress, Mr. Zuma's party, has reacted with
unusual swiftness to respond to the accusation that the Gupta family
received special treatment, suspending several officials in the government
protocol service, the police and the military.
"The government would like to assure the South African public that
no stone will be left unturned to ensure that we get to the bottom of this
matter and hold all those responsible for bringing our country into
disrepute, whoever they are and whatever position they hold," Jeff Radebe,
the country's justice minister, said in televised remarks on Friday.
Government officials said they had no record of giving the jet
permission to land at the military base, which is outside the capital,
Pretoria, and is closer to Sun City, where the wedding was held, than
Johannesburg's international airport.
The Guptas arrived in South Africa in the early 1990s, just as the
country was in the midst of its transition from white rule to multiracial
democracy. They grew wealthy through multiple investments, including
Sahara Computers and The New Age, a newspaper.
One of the brothers in the family, Atul Gupta, offered a defense
in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, declaring
that "hundreds of people are getting jobs, there is a boost to the
tourism," as a result of the wedding. He said that the jet had been
cleared to land at Waterkloof Air Base.
"No airplane in the world can land without permission," he said.
This is not the first scandal to engulf Mr. Zuma. In 2005, he was
fired as deputy president by his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, as he faced a
bevy of corruption charges. Also that year, he was charged with raping the
daughter of a family friend. The corruption charges were later dropped
amid accusations of prosecutorial misconduct, and he was acquitted of the
rape charge.
But the whiff of scandal has followed him, even as he assumed the
presidency in 2008. Last year, he faced tough questions about $25 million
in upgrades performed at his sprawling personal compound in the village
where he was born, Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal Province.
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Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
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The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money.
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