Is self-confessed liar Bruce Koloane being recalled as ambassador?

The man who said he lied about “Number One” to hoodwink officials into allowing the Gupta wedding plane to land at Waterkloof airbase might not have much longer to enjoy his life as an ambassador.

And if Bruce Koloane’s career crashes and burns, then he should not be surprised, say experts – because South Africa cannot afford to have a representative who is ethically discredited.

Despite being the fall guy for the illegal 2013 landing – and being reprimanded by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), where he was head of protocol at the time of the landing – Kolaone was appointed South African Ambassador to The Netherlands.

When asked this week whether there would be any further action taken against Koloane, Dirco’s offical response was that “he had been punished enough”.

However, that view is clearly not shared by the minister in charge of foreign affairs, Naledi Pandor, who gave notice yesterday that Koloane’s days as head of the embassy in The Hague could well be numbered, after she told a radio station she would consult with President Cyril Ramaphosa with a view to discuss whether to recall Koloane or not.

She said the matter was serious and that she would recommend to Ramaphosa that he should reconsider Koloane as our ambassador to The Netherlands.

“Koloane’s admissions aren’t new, he was disciplined for them. Ambassador Koloane is in his last six months of his term and he was not appointed by me or President Ramaphosa,” she said.

On the possible recall, Pandor said: “I don’t have, at the moment, a decision as to what should be done, but I do believe the matter is serious enough for me to approach the president and ask him if we should not consider particular actions.”

Earlier this month, Dirco said that the appointments of ambassadors whose terms had expired had been extended, to allow Ramaphosa time to consider their deployments.

Political analyst and specialist on leadership issues Dr Mazwe Majola said after Koloane testified and gave contradictory evidence about the role former President Jacob Zuma played in the Gupta wedding saga, he would be perceived as being discredited in the eyes of South Africans and the outside world.

Koloane this week changed his testimony under oath after tape recordings of his telephone conversations were played during a hearing at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

He changed his statement to say that he personally told the military officials that Zuma and two Cabinet ministers had instructed that the Guptas’ aircraft be allowed to land at the airbase, which is a national keypoint and normally only used for arrivals of heads of state.

Koloane said he was just “name-dropping” in order to pressure the officials to act on the matter, adding that he was ashamed that he “lied” about the matter.

But Majola argued that Koloane was ethically discredited and his recall would not be a surprise, if it happened.

“An ambassador represents the president and citizens of a country. He is expected to uphold the values of the nation and the constitution and needs to be someone with honour and a very credible person who must be seen by the people of that foreign country as being credible,” Majola said.

After the Gupta aircraft landing incident, it was clear that there was an effort to protect Koloane by redeploying him to an ambassadorial post.

Another analyst, Susan Booysen, director of research at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, said what Koloane said was disgraceful and lent itself to action by the president.

“It would actually be a service to the country if people like those are recalled. I know that ambassadorial postings are dumping grounds for bad apples. But if the Ramaphosa government is serious that it’s turning a new page or brave enough, then such a person must come back home. They should not even employ such people,” said Booysen.

Regarding Zindzi Mandela, SA’s ambassador to Denmark, who received flak from Afrikaner rights groupings after tweeting last month that “apartheid apologists’ time was over” and that they would not rule anymore, Booysen said although the diplomat “was way too outspoken”, there was “nothing morally wrong” in what she did or said, Booysen said.

AfriForum lodged a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission while the Freedom Front Plus demanded President Ramaphosa take action against Mandela, who is a daughter of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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