South Africa said on Friday a plane carrying the security personnel accompanying President Cyril Ramaphosa on a peace mission to Ukraine was held up in Poland, in an incident that sparked a diplomatic squabble.
A charter flight carrying security forces and journalists was blocked upon landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport on Thursday, with Polish authorities not allowing passengers to disembark, according to South African officials.
“We’re deeply disturbed by the experience they’ve gone through,” Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya said in a statement on Friday, describing the incident as “regrettable”.
The Polish government said the aircraft was “detained” because of a failure to comply with standard entry procedures required by the country.
“Dangerous goods were on board the plane, which South African representatives did not have permission to bring in,” Poland’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“In addition, there were persons on board the aircraft of whose presence the Polish side had not been notified beforehand.”
Earlier, Poland’s deputy minister for special services, Stanislaw Zaryn, said some of the passengers did not have permission to carry weapons into the country and were thus not allowed to disembark.
Magwenya said South African officials were working to resolve the impasse, which earlier triggered an outburst from the head of Ramaphosa’s security, who accused Polish authorities of racism — a charge Zaryn dismissed as “nonsense”.
The plane left Pretoria early on Thursday, reportedly carrying about 120 people, in between security personnel and journalists.
The group was meant to follow Ramaphosa on his trip to Kyiv as part of an African leaders’ peace mission.
“They are delaying us, they are putting the life of our president in jeopardy,” the head of presidential security, Major General Wally Rhoode, said in an impromptu on-board press conference.
“They say we don’t have permits, we have permits,” Rhoode added, albeit admitting some members of the delegation only had copies of the required papers. “See how racist they are.”
Magwenya later denied the incident had compromised the president’s safety.
– Mission going ‘as planned’ –
Ramaphosa had arrived in Warsaw separately aboard the Inkwazi presidential jet, after attending a UN summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
Following a short meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, he headed to Rzeszow, near the Ukrainian border, and then on to Kyiv by train, according to the presidential office.
“Notwithstanding the hitches that have been experienced in Poland…the rest of the mission is proceeding quite well and as planned,” Magwenya said. “The president arrived safely in Kyiv.”
On Friday afternoon, some journalists aboard the aircraft reported they had been finally allowed to disembark after more than 24 hours on the tarmac.
It was not immediately clear whether they would be allowed to travel onwards.
Magwenya said authorities were hoping the security team would be allowed to join Ramaphosa for the second leg of the peace talks on Saturday in Russia.
The Polish foreign ministry said steps were being taken to resolve the situation.
