It remains a mystery exactly what took place hours before Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera left SA soil on Friday after bilateral talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
At the centre of the speculation is the alleged refusal at the last minute by the SA law-enforcement agencies to allow Chakwera to leave the country with his entire entourage from the Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria, “citing unspecified security reasons”.
The handling of the saga, which coincided with the escape of controversial pastor Shepherd Bushiri and his wife at the weekend, has embarrassed the SA government.
Bushiri, accused of money laundering, on Saturday held a press conference on Facebook, where he said he fled SA because he “feared for his safety” and that he would not get a fair trial. On Monday, the Pretoria magistrate’s court issued a warrant of arrest to the fugitive couple after their Hollywood-style brazen escape at the weekend.
Explaining the sequence of events last week, Malawian director of communications at state house, Sean Kampondeni, told Sunday Times Daily things took an unexpected turn at the Pretoria Waterkloof Air Force Base airport when Chakwera was preparing to leave the country.
“His advance team would have arrived in the country some time on Monday through OR Tambo International Airport while Dr Lazarus Chakwera and his delegation arrived in the country through the Waterkloof military airbase in Pretoria on Thursday.”
Kampondeni said Chakwera had held “very cordial and warm” bilateral talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday.
“At the end of those discussions, Chakwera was preparing to leave the country when his delegation learnt that the advance team would not be allowed by the SA authorities at the Waterkloof Airbase to board the same aeroplane as the president’s delegation, even though they had been informed of the arrangements in advance and even though this has been our protocol in all the countries that Chakwera has visited. And so we did not understand why the advance team was being barred from boarding the plane.”
He went on to say that: “The SA authorities at the Waterkloof Airbase cited security reasons but would not reveal what the security reasons were and, quite frankly, the Malawi delegation found that unsatisfactory.
“At which point Chakwera was informed of the position of the SA authorities at the airbase and it was at that point that he decided that he was not going to leave Pretoria until his entire delegation, including the advance team, was cleared to take off with him because he was not going to leave any officials behind.
“And so what followed was an impasse of sorts and the delegation from Malawi had civil discussions with the SA authorities at the airbase, but it took six hours for the proposal from the Malawi delegation to be accepted ... That proposal was that the advance team which had come in through OR Tambo International Airport should return to OR Tambo airport and the Malawi delegation that had flown in through the airbase in Pretoria should take off on the plane together with the president. And then the president could then pick up his advance team from OR Tambo airport to allow him to fly out of the country with his entire entourage of officials.”
Kampondeni said the Malawian government, through the ministry of foreign affairs, had registered its dissatisfaction with the treatment of Chakwera’s delegation while he was in SA.
“Upon his departure to have been subjected to these strange delays and refusals to take his officials with him, for unspecified security reasons, was simply unheard off in diplomatic circles.”
Appearing before national assembly’s home affairs portfolio committee, minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Tuesday morning said some of the entourage, who were not known to SA’s officials, sought to board the presidential plane at Waterkloof instead of OR Tambo.
Motsoaledi told parliament the Malawian statesman originally arrived with an entourage of 23 people, including himself and his wife, and landed at the airbase.
But, Motsoaledi said, after the visit the delegation had increased to 66 and all wanted to board the flight back to Malawi even though there were no prior arrangements for them to be flown from Waterkloof.
An official from Malawi reportedly then requested permission from international relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor to do this, but the minister declined the request. Instead Pandor is said to have sent acting home affairs director Jackie McKay to Waterkloof to redirect the group to OR Tambo.
Motsoaledi said the presidential plane was searched twice and assured MPs the Bushiris did not leave in the presidential plane.
Kampondeni maintained it was strange that, “after enjoying his 24 hours and cordial treatment, when he [Chakwera] wanted to leave, [he] was informed that his advance team would not be allowed on the plane, so it was more to do with the treatment that his advance team received at the hands of the SA authorities ... he was not barred to leave, he was not mistreated, he was not disrespected ...”
Chakwera allegedly had, through the ministry of foreign affairs, informed the SA government that when he left on Friday at 3.30pm, he would be leaving with his advance team as he had done with all his diplomatic missions around the regions.
“The reasons that were given were vague and unsatisfactory ... All the SA authorities said was, we won’t allow the advance team to get on the plane because of security reasons and to this date have not specified what those security reasons were. And because the security reasons were not cited, Chakwera refused to leave the country until his advance team were allowed to ...”
On the SA government’s announced intention to ask for the extradition of the two Malawians, he said: “We have an indication that the South Africans will make contact because they have said so publicly and so the Malawi government is on standby.
“The minister of information is on record as having said the communication, once it has been received from the SA government through formal channels, will be handled and responded to accordingly and in compliance with the law and procedures for law enforcement.”
On allegations of close ties between Bushiri and Chakwera, Kampondeni said: “The perception has no basis.
“There is neither a cordial relationship between Bushiri and Chakwera nor is there an acrimonious relationship between Prophet Bushiri and Chakwera. They do not have a relationship at all. They do not have a personal relationship, they are not related, they are not friends, they are not buddies, they are not business partners, and they have actually never done anything together at all. And so there is no relationship that exists, and therefore, there is no basis for that rumour-mongering taking place in the SA press.”
