{"id":114598,"date":"2016-02-28T09:12:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T07:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=114598"},"modified":"2016-02-28T09:12:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T07:12:53","slug":"r4-billion-zuma-jet-back-on-the-cards-after-embarrassing-old-one-breaks-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/114598\/r4-billion-zuma-jet-back-on-the-cards-after-embarrassing-old-one-breaks-down\/","title":{"rendered":"R4 billion Zuma jet back on the cards after &#8217;embarrassing&#8217; old one breaks down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African National Defence Force says president Jacob Zuma requires a new jet urgently as the current plane &#8220;is compromising his safety and it is embarrassing&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>This is according to The Sunday Times, after Zuma was unable\u00a0to leave Burundi on Friday when the presidential Boeing, Inkwazi, developed technical problems.<\/p>\n<p>The president was mediating in peace talks in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n<p>The SANDF said it chartered a plane to Bujumbura from Waterkloof Air Force Base in the early hours of yesterday morning to fetch the president who returned home on Saturday, but only after deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to step in for Zuma on several local engagements.<\/p>\n<p>Inkwazi had also been grounded on a trip to Moscow last year, following mechanical difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>The City Press reported in November that an acquisition process by\u00a0Armscor is aimed at providing president Jacob Zuma with a new VIP jet which could cost up to R4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the specifications for the jet include a \u201cprivate bedroom suite, a bathroom, and a conference room for eight people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe aircraft must be able to carry at least 30 passengers and have a range of 13,800km,\u201d stated the report.<\/p>\n<p>According to the City Press\u2019 findings, there are only a handful of planes that match the tender\u2019s requirements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A basic Boeing 777 which costs about R3.9 billion<\/li>\n<li>The Boeing 787 which costs about R3.1 billion<\/li>\n<li>The Airbus which A330 costs about R3 billion<\/li>\n<li>The Airbus A340 which costs about R3.1 billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The defence force and government\u2019s military acquisition arm\u201a Armscor, however rubbished the price tag, while president Zuma himself said that South Africans have a tendency of sensationalising issues.<\/p>\n<p>SANDF spokesman Simphiwe Dlamini said of the presidential plane:&#8221;This plane is compromising his safety and it is embarrassing,&#8221; Dlamini said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need it like yesterday. Not even tomorrow. It is very critical. This is not an isolated incident,&#8221; said Dlamini.<\/p>\n<p>He said the outcry over the procurement of a new presidential jet was unwarranted. &#8220;It is not even for the president, it is for the state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>The full report is in the Sunday Times of 28 February 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on president Zuma<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/103579\/zuma-jet-a-strategic-asset-not-a-toy\/\">Zuma jet a \u2018strategic asset\u2019 not a toy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/103447\/this-is-what-zumas-r4-billion-plane-could-look-like\/\">This is what Zuma\u2019s R4 billion plane could look like<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/103379\/new-r4-billion-jet-for-zuma-report\/\">New R4-billion jet for Zuma: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African National Defence Force says president Jacob Zuma requires a new jet urgently as the current plane &#8220;is compromising his safety and it is embarrassing&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":103471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26,6245],"class_list":["post-114598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline","tag-sandf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114598"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114616,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114598\/revisions\/114616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}