President Cyril Ramaphosa's head of security, Major General Wally Rhoode, has excoriated Polish authorities for "putting the life of our President in jeopardy" after the Polish police refused to allow Ramaphosa's security detail to disembark at Warsaw's international airport.
The incident occurred on Thursday, when a South African Airways (SAA) chartered plane by the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) that was carrying President Ramaphosa’s security detail couldn’t disembark for 10 hours at Warsaw Airport.
The presidential security detail was supposed to travel to Ukraine, where Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in the framework of the African Peace Mission.
Major General Wally Rhoode argued that the supposed reason for not letting Ramaphosa's security personnel enter the country was the absence of weapons permits, which were carried in containers that were on the plane.
Rhoode noted that South Africa had been "engaging with the Polish government for two weeks" on the matter.
“They say we don’t have permits. We have permits; the only difference is now they say we can’t bring a copy of a permit, we must bring the original. They are delaying us. They are putting the life of our president in jeopardy because we could have been in Kiev this afternoon already and this is what they are doing; and I want you guys to see this, how racist they are… we were sabotaged while we were here,” Rhoode noted.
Apart from that, Ramaphosa's security chief revealed that one of his female colleagues that was in Poland had been strip-searched, before getting on the plane.
“Bonny tried for four hours, Bonny was stripped searched and it has never happened that someone with a diplomatic passport is stripped searched – just to get us out of here. Now they say we don’t have permits and we have permits,” Rhoode argued.
Reacting to the incident, South African Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said that "the travel difficulties that have been experienced by the additional security team from South Africa in Warsaw, Poland, is not a cause for concern."
On Friday, Magwenya argued that the incident was "very unfortunate and deeply regrettable," while assuring South Africans that "there has been no compromise whatsoever" to the President Ramaphosa's safety.
Ramaphosa's visit to Kiev, announced back in May, where the South African president arrived on Friday, is part of the African Peace Mission Initiative.
On Thursday, Polish media reported that the presidents of South Africa, Zambia and the Comoros had arrived in Poland to hold talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
On Saturday, the delegation will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.