Warsaw saga: The General doth protest too much

The race card is played so often to cover up incompetence in this country that we should not be surprised that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s head of security – Major-General Wally Rhoode – did the same thing in Warsaw.

He called Polish police and border authorities racist because they had the temerity to question the weapons permits the South African presidential security team was carrying when it arrived in Warsaw aboard a chartered SAA plane.

Rhoode – the man who did not report the theft of money hidden in a couch at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala ranch, remember? – was incredulous that the Polish authorities insisted on seeing the originals of the permits… as if no government in the world dealing with security and border formalities ever demands original documents.

Sorry, General, someone on the South African side believed they could get away with amateurish behaviour.

And, if the Poles were racist, why have there been no reports of problems with the delegations accompanying the other five African presidents on the mission to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine?

Also: why was the SAA plane made to do circuits before being granted permission to overfly Italy?

Not because someone messed up that documentation, too, surely?

Why was it necessary to have 100 security personnel on that flight to be part of the expedition, especially when Ramaphosa’s 25 or so inner-circle protection team were already with him on his official jet, which was not delayed?

Reports said Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema had only a dozen people with him and the other African leaders had nothing like our president’s mini-army.

On the other hand, it may be that the Polish action was an expression of the disdain Europeans feel for SA, which maintains its warm links to Moscow.

Either way, South Africa’s global image takes yet another battering.

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