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Koloane admits he unduly used Zuma’s name for Gupta plane landing

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Former Chief of State Protocol, Bruce Koloane has admitted that he unduly used former President Jacob Zuma’s name to put pressure on officials to clear the landing of the Gupta plane at the Waterkloof Air Force Base in 2013.

He however has denied personally benefiting from facilitating the unlawful landing.

Testifying at the State Capture Commission, Koloane also conceded he may have lied on Monday, when he denied using the names of the President and Minister of Defence to facilitate the landing.

The former State Protocol Chief has been implicated by several witnesses as the key figure behind the landing.

He opted to continue with his testimony, after listening to recordings implicating him.
On Monday he denied having name-dropped.

In an about-turn, Koloane, on Tuesday, admitted that he did use the names of the former President and other ministers to exert pressure on officials.

He said the audio recordings have “helped to refresh” his memory.

The Commission’s Chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo asked Koloane why he went out of his way to expedite the request of the Indian High Commissioner to South Africa and even dropped the names of former President Jacob Zuma and the Ministers of Transport and Defence to pressurise the South African National Defence Force and International Relations Department.

“There was nothing in it for me at all. I indicated when I started my testimony that one of my core responsibilities was serving strategic bilateral relationships with all the diplomatic missions in South Africa and India being one of these strategic countries in that we are part of IBSA together, part of BRICS together as well . I think I had an interest to appease him and besides, also to build a personal relationship over time.”

Koloane says he is considering writing a letter to former President Jacob Zuma to apologise for allowing the public perception that Zuma was behind the Waterkloof Gupta plane landing.

He says he is ashamed because he did not correct the misrepresentation of Zuma’s role in the media.

Besides the former President, Koloane also used the names of Transport and Defence Ministers Ben Martins and Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to influence the officials to approve the landing.

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