Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 2013-05-02

As South Africans rage about the apparent misuse of a national key point in Pretoria, hundreds of wedding guests were treated to champagne and Häagen Dazs ice cream while relaxing in tents next to the Lost Palace's swimming pool…

Seemingly oblivious and non-chalant to the drama caused by the lavish nuptials, 23 year old Vega Gupta and Indian born Aakash Jahajgarhia are running through an over-the-top series of events and ceremonies, to join their families and celebrate their love.

The Gupta family, which owns The New Age newspaper and Sahara Computers, will celebrate the wedding of Vega Gupta to Aaskash at Sun City, North West, between May 1 and 4. The wealthy family flew in early 200 guests from India to the Water Kloof Air Force base in Pretoria ahead of the lavish wedding.

Tax payers coughed up for 20 Flying Squad members, 10 high powered flying squad cars, as many as 40 members of the police counter assault team and VIP protection unit and several armoured and specialized surveillance vehicles to protect the more than 200 guests labeled as “royalty”.

The counter assault team and the VIP protection unit were ordered to escort 5 trucks from OR Tambo Airport to Sun City. Two of these apparently contained gifts for the wedding couple and dignitaries.

The specialist policemen remained at Sun City to protect the venue and guests during the wedding for which most of the Palace of the Lost City at Sun City is booked out.

A police officer who was involved in the operation and its planning said the security detailed had been finalised last week. They had to clock in for work at 5am on Tuesday and had knocked off at 2pm. “The flying squad members from across Gauteng were all off duty and will receive additional overtime payments for answering the call to duty,” he said.

The Gupta’s has said the Indian High Commission submitted the application to use the airport which went through all the appropriate channels.

Managing the country’s ports of entry is the border control operational coordinating committee on which delegates from several departments including home affairs, defence and state security sit.

Sars is also represented on the committee because it handles matters relating to customs by collecting duties and taxes.  A government official says when private aircraft like the Gupta’s is arriving at a non-commercial airport; the application for such landing is discussed at the committee.

But Sars confirms that it was not aware of this aircrafts arrival raising questions about whether the application was presented to the committee and which channels it went through.

Prominent South Africans took to social media to express outrage over the controversial Gupta family flying an entire wedding delegation into the military base in Waterkloof.
 
Congess of SA Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) spokesperson Zwelenzima Vavi said this was something unheard of in our 19 years of democracy.
 
“Some family with not a single scar to show for a struggle for democracy now using national key point for wedding. This is just a scandal,” he said

So what exactly are the wedding party and hundreds of guests doing, as government departments scramble to explain how their party plane was allowed to land at the strategic Waterkloof Air Force Base?
 
The Gupta's spokesman Haranath Ghosh, for one, is doing damage control, taking to Twitter to put a South Africa-friendly spin on the whole debacle. He tweeted, “this was supposed to be a private wedding which in turn will promote SA as a destination for such big events internationally #GuptaWedding

Meanwhile International relations has suspended its chief protocol officer Bruce Koloane as it investigates who authorized the aircraft to land at the national key point. Spokesperson Clayson Monyela said the Gupta’s charted jet must be moved from Water Kloof air force base. “The people that came through that airport, will not exit via that airport because that’s a military facility and what happened shouldn’t have happened, said Monyela.”

President Jacob Zuma will also not attend the wedding ceremony at Sun City. Zuma was meant to leave on board an air force Oryx helicopter from Swartkop air base to Sun City and attend the wedding ceremony. He will instead be attending a meeting in Congo on the situation in the Central African Republic.