Metro police to brief media on Guptas

The Tshwane metro police will brief media on Friday on the alleged involvement of some of its officers in escorting Gupta wedding guests from Waterkloof Air Force Base to Sun City.

 

Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said on Tuesday that the metro police had issued intention-to-suspend letters to nine officers. He said the metro police did not receive a request to help at the Gupta wedding. Therefore no instructions were issued to officers to provide security. "Officials who assisted went of their own accord and in their own capacity," said Mahamba. 

 

He said two of the implicated officers arrested last week appeared in court on Friday. The charges against them were withdrawn. The officers allegedly fitted blue lights and false number plates to their private vehicles to escort guests to the Gupta family wedding in Sun City, North West. A senior police officer, three air force officers, and the chief 

of state protocol were suspended for their alleged part in the unauthorised landing of a jet chartered by the Gupta family at the military base. 

 

Some of the officers allegedly carried their service weapons while performing private duties, in contravention of the Firearms Control Act. The jet chartered by the Gupta family made an unauthorised landing at the Waterkloof Air Force Base -- a national key point -- last Tuesday. It was carrying guests to the wedding of Vega Gupta, 23, to Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia. The Guptas own The New Age newspaper and Sahara Computers. The jet was moved off the base last Thursday, amid widespread criticism. 

 

-Sapa