The DA has described the South African participation in the peace mission by African leaders to the Ukraine as omnishambles. This comes as Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in a statement that the plane carrying around 120 South Africans including journalists, police and military security for President Cyril Ramaphosa had what it calls “dangerous goods” on board the plane.
The journalists, police officers and soldiers have finally disembarked from their plane at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport in Poland after their 26-hour ordeal.
They are to go to their hotels after being processed at the airport.
The Polish foreign ministry says the South African representatives did not have permission to bring the items into Poland.
DA leader John Steenhuisen was speaking at a Youth Day event in East London.
“Any initiative for peace must be welcomed. The president is not an honest broker and I don’t think the trip is going as well as he would have liked and the stand-off in Poland is another example of that. I would not have taken 126 people with me, certainly not a small army and certainly would not have taken the amount of weaponry they have,” says Steenhuisen.
Update on Ramaphosa’s peace mission to war-torn Ukraine:
Warsaw says in addition, there were people on board the aircraft that the Polish government had not been informed about beforehand.
The ministry says it made every effort to properly prepare for President Ramaphosa’s visit. It says steps are being taken to resolve the situation.
