Friday, January 20, 2012

Zuma jet recordings 'illegal'

The Defence Ministry claimed on Thursday that recordings of President Jacob Zuma's travel activity are illegal.

This was despite the fact that the information was openly available on an American website that broadcasts live air traffic control feeds globally.

More audio in Eyewitness News' possession suggested that a charted plane shadowing the president's jet during his recent visit to the United States left John F. Kennedy International Airport just seven minutes after the official aircraft departed.

But the Defence Ministry nevertheless insisted that the second plane only flew to the Canary Islands, remained there waiting for the presidential aircraft, and then returned home to South Africa.

The ministry's Ndhivuwo Mabaya said that the recordings stating otherwise were hardly reliable.

"Anyone can produce a recording.

"If you want us to run this government based on an illegal website that records the conversations of pilots illegally, we are not going to be part of that.

"I don't have to listen to it," he continued. "If you believe it that is your choice."

The cost of flying the second plane was thought to have been about R2-million.

- iafrica

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