But should you look at how the SA Press Association (SAPA) is quoting the legal representative of some of the these soldiers, it raises more questions than answers. “It seems that the military’s view of the matter is that these officers are guilty of some military offence for their role in the Gupta landing, but it’s not clear what that role is alleged to have been. They are being charged with charges ranging from disobeying written instructions to conduct prejudicial to military discipline. It will only be clear from the final charge sheet what exactly the charges are,” said SA National Defence Union (Sandu) national secretary Pikkie Greeff who appears as counsel for two of the soldiers.
The four soldiers are Lieutenant Colonel Christo Van Zyl, Lieutenant Colonel Christine Anderson, Warrant Officer Thabo Ntshisi and Colonel Nomsa Khumalo, They appeared in a military court in the Thaba Tshwane military base in Pretoria. Guys, for those of you have been living abroad for a while, that is what used to be called Roberts Heights and later Voortrekkerhoogte.
A fifth officer, identified as Colonel Nkosi, was scheduled to appear later. The matter was postponed until 2 October.
Their appearance follows an event where a commercial aircraft of Jet Airways landed at the Waterkloof Airforce Base from India carrying just over 200 guests to the wedding of Vega Gupta Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia. It sparked an uproar as the base is supposed to be a national key point.
An earlier government investigation unsurprisingly exonerated President Jacob Zuma and his ministers, and found that the landing was the result of “collusion by officials”.
