No flight clearance: President's 120 security personnel to ret | South Africa Reports

No flight clearance: President's 120 security personnel to return to SA after Russian trip fiasco

Around 120 security personnel from the Presidential Protection Service (PPS), SAPS task force and other specialised units will return to South Africa on Sunday after the plane chartered by the South African government failed to get flight clearance to fly to Russia.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and other African leaders will meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg in Russia on Saturday afternoon.

Polish authorities said they refused the South Africans entry to Poland because of faulty and incomplete permits related to the cargo of arms the aircraft was carrying.

Now flight clearance to depart Warsaw for St Petersburg was also refused, meaning that the SAA A340-300, which left Waterkloof Air Force Base on Wednesday night with 120 security personnel and a full airline crew, will return to Pretoria without fulfilling a single mission objective.

– Pieter du Toit, assistant editor at News24, in Poland