EXCLUSIVE | The mystery jet, the former Russian first lady and a blonde VIP

News 24 – 11 July 2022

·         A private jet registered in the name of Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of former prime minister and president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, landed in Cape Town.

·         However, the operators of the Bombardier Global 5000's return flight were denied fuel by suppliers in Cape Town and were diverted to Lanseria.

·         The purpose of the flight remains a secret, but eyewitnesses spotted a contingent of bodyguards and an entourage accompanying a stately older woman with blonde hair.

Mystery surrounds a two-day trip in Cape Town by a business jet registered in the name of Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of former prime minister and president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.

News24 can reveal the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet had to divert its return flight from Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday to Lanseria International Airport outside of Johannesburg because its operators were denied fuel by suppliers in Cape Town.

Medvedeva is a Russian economist, but it is not known who was on board the flight operated by Russian air charter company RusJet. The purpose of the flight that arrived in Cape Town on Monday last week and departed again on Wednesday remains a secret.

 

The route of the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet. (Screen grab via Flightradar24)

According to Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) operations manager Terence Delomaney, “we do not have any scheduled Russian aircraft flying into our airports at the moment. Lanseria is not an Acsa airport. All aircraft will need to ensure arrangements are made in advance for fuelling. There are various suppliers available - some may apply sanctions and others not”.

As a commercial airport, Lanseria buys its own fuel and then sells it forward to all aircraft operators using the airport.

International oil and fuel companies might apply the same sanctions in their countries of origin instituted against Russia, which have affected flights from Russia internationally. The same applies to the European and US airspace, which is closed for Russian air traffic.

According to the website www.airport-data.com, the private jet is registered in Svetlana Medvedeva's name.

RusJet is a Russian VIP charter company based in Moscow. According to eyewitnesses at Lanseria, it was obvious there was a very important person or people on board, judged by the contingent of bodyguards and the entourage accompanying a stately older woman with blonde hair.

They said there were 14 passengers who disembarked at Lanseria: the older woman; what seemed to be a private assistant; another two women who looked after her needs; and four security guards, while the rest were men in business suits who entered the aircraft just behind the older woman when they got back into the plane.

The entourage was rushed into the VIP lounge, with the security guards posted outside while the jet was refuelled.

It was obviously just a fuel stop before the jet departed late Wednesday afternoon again. According to Flightradar24, the jet arrived in Cape Town on Monday via Cairo in Egypt. It followed the same route back, re-routing through Botswana.

 

The route of the Bombardier Global 5000 private jet. (Screen grab via Flightradar24)

According to Africa Intelligence, up to March, the aircraft had been registered in the state of San Marino and is part of Skyline Aviation's fleet.

According to an investigation by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, “Skyline is a charter company based in the small Alpine republic, with strong ties to the Russian elite and currently in liquidation. Its aircraft – including the one seen in South Africa – regularly flew former Russian prime minister and president Dmitry Medvedev's wife, Svetlana Medvedeva. 

"Skyline has been under US sanctions since 2 June due to its links with Russia,” the publication reported.

It's unclear if the passenger(s) were in South Africa for government or private business.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor was in Indonesia attending a two-day G20 meeting of foreign ministers.

Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for the presidency, referred enquiries to Pandor's department, which did not respond.

The Russian embassy in Pretoria said it had no information regarding the flight.

The Moscow Times in 2019 reported that “Medvedeva secretly owns a $50 million Bombardier small business jet that she uses to fly to Europe and Russian cities”. The claims were made by Alexei Navalny, opposition leader who survived a poisoning attempt in 2020 and has been imprisoned since January 2021.

Navalny claimed Medvedeva undertook 11 trips to various destinations from 2015 to 2019 with the jet which was paid for by the Russian government. She was described as a socialite who appeared on various best-dressed lists prior to becoming Russia’s first lady in 2008. She completed her studies as an economist but gave up her career when she married her husband.

Medvedev made headlines last week when he invoked the possibility of nuclear war if the International Criminal Court moves to punish Moscow for alleged crimes in Ukraine.

Medvedev was President Vladimir Putin's stand-in president between 2008 and 2012 and now serves as deputy head of the Security Council of Russia.

 

Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev (L) and first wife Svetlana Medvedeva arrive at the Phipps Conservatory for the G-20 Summit on September 24, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

The question remains of what urgent business the aircraft’s passengers were in Cape Town for, for them to undertake a long and tedious flight to avoid the European skies Russian aircraft are currently banned from.

Sources in the oil industry told News24 the most logical explanation would be that it involved Russia’s attempts to find buyers for its crude oil, which it currently has in abundance, but can’t sell due to international sanctions.

In recent weeks various news reports speculated that South Africa has massive crude storage tanks at its facility in Saldanha which Russia might eye as a possible storing space for its crude. At least two oil tanker ships from Russia were recently suspected to call at Saldanha, but when their presence came under the spotlight, the ships both headed around South Africa towards the United Arab Emirates.

Another source says there are also discussions underway to source Russian fuel via China or India. With South Africa part of the BRICS government, it can freely trade with both Russia, China and India, especially with the fuel crunch the country is currently facing.

www.samigration.com

 

Zimbabweans face a stark choice: start from zero in a broken country or live undocumented in SA

Groundup – 11 July 2022

 

From January 1 2023, hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans and their children will no longer be able to live, work and go to school legally in the republic

Three Zimbabweans who held Zimbabwean exemption permits (ZEPs), which the SA government has now scrapped, share their anxiety and anguish as they face deportation, uprooting their lives and children and starting all over again in Zimbabwe, or continuing to live here as undocumented migrants.

Shepherd Muroyiwa is one of about 178,000 Zimbabweans affected by the cabinet decision not to renew the ZEP, which expired in December 2021. ZEP holders were given until the end of December 2022 to legalise their status in the country by other means. For most this is not possible.

Muroyiwa runs a market in Parow, Cape Town, that sells fresh produce popular with immigrants — spinach, covo, rape, pumpkin leaves, okra, Mazoe orange crush concentrate, kapenta fish and mopani worms.

“There are no other people [here] selling what I specialise in. Moving to Zimbabwe would mean the death of my family’s livelihood,” says Muroyiwa. “It is like walking into darkness. We don’t know how we will survive.”

Muroyiwa started his business in 2009.

“We are only filling the gap and augmenting the SA economy. We can’t be accused of taking business from the citizens … There is empty space [a stall] right next to me. Why are they [South Africans] not taking it?

“If a South African takes over my business, to whom he is going to sell? As immigrants we have common foods we eat, and we sell to each other,” he says.

A preschool principal, who has been living in SA for 13 years and asked not to be identified, says she had hoped to get a waiver. A waiver allows the department of home affairs to disregard certain requirements for permission to stay, such as when an employer can prove they advertised for a job but no South Africans qualified.

She applied for a waiver from home affairs in December, but she has never even received a response. She followed up in February but was told she cannot start a new permit application until she gets a response.

She is anxious. She has copies of rejected waivers other Zimbabweans had received.

Relocating, she says, would be starting from zero.

“If we sell our belongings, it’s not going to be purchased for the actual value,” she says.

“My 12-year-old child speaks English and Afrikaans only. How is she going to be integrated in Zimbabwean government schools? … Children who have already moved to Zimbabwe are stressed. The adjustment is going to be huge.”

It is like walking into darkness. We don’t know how we will survive

Shepherd Muroyiwa

Another ZEP holder, who also asked to stay anonymous, teaches grade 5 maths. Only grade 8 to 12 maths teachers qualify for critical skills.

“I will lose my job … Mentally it’s eating me up, trying to think how I am going to survive,” he says.

He used to teach in a rural school in Zimbabwe but fled political violence in 2008.

“I had to run away from home, sleep in the mountains and eventually I came to SA. I had to sleep in a queue, braving cold, rainy weather for days before I got asylum, which I renewed every six months before the government implemented DZP [now the ZEP.]

“So, since then, I was on that permit. I got a teaching job in 2016. Before that I worked for a property management company. I then studied a BA in environmental management with Unisa and completed it last year,” he says.

He has two sons at university, a third in high school and a daughter in primary school. He says he has loans, furniture accounts and a mortgage to pay. But without legal status his bank account will be closed.

“I don’t even want to imagine it,” he says.

He says he will never get a job in Zimbabwe’s civil service.

“I would rather live here undocumented and I will only go when they deport me. This means I am turning myself into … a criminal to run away from law enforcement and home affairs officials, which is something that should not be happening to a professional person like me. Surely, the situation leaves me with no choice but to live under the radar?” he says.

“We are in this position because of this brotherhood in Africa where presidents are shielding one another instead of rebuking when they go astray. If SA had done the right thing from the beginning, we might not have been here or stayed this far,” he says, presumably referring to former president Thabo Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe in the 2000s, which many believe gave Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, a free hand to loot the country.

Activist Anthony Muteti says: “The situation has not improved in Zimbabwe. The SA government has not done enough to make … Zanu-PF accountable. They declared the election in Zimbabwe free and fair when people were intimidated and murdered.

“A lot of Zimbabweans are going to come back undocumented … The intensification of security at the border is not going to work; it is a dream, a fantasy. I come from a province close to SA where people used to walk to SA for so many years. Our forefathers have established families; it will go on forever.”

Julius Shamu, a Zimbabwe community leader, says: “As for the claims of Zimbabweans taking jobs from South Africans, I do not agree. How would people working for themselves take jobs from South Africans? How can you tell a person who has been living in the country for more than 10 years to go back to his country without proper planning?”

He says the Helen Suzman Foundation’s challenge to the government’s decision to not renew the ZEP gives Zimbabweans some hope. At least there are people and organisations fighting on their side, he says.

www.samigration.com

 

 

 

 

Corruption inquiry into Government Printing Works gave Motsoaledi 'sleepless nights', parliament hears

11 July 2022 – Times Live

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has told parliament he wants strong action taken against anyone found to be  responsible for sabotaging the Government Printing Works.

The minister was briefing parliament’s committee on home affairs on Tuesday on the investigation into the loss of financial data and curriculum vitae (CVs), as well as investigations by the Hawks into allegations of corruption at the organisation.

“It worried me a lot because it can hold the economy of the country to ransom. I was even more worried because I appeared before this committee to announce to you the foothold that we had started to gain on the African continent in the manner of servicing it.

It gave me sleepless nights because that is a national key point where security is very important. You wouldn’t like to have people who make things collapse deliberately, for whatever motive and so, it was worrying.

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, home affairs minister

“Namibia wants us to print important security documents for them and subsequent to my announcement about Namibia, Kenya came on board and at a high level. Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Uhuru Kenyatta, signed an agreement on behalf of the GPW for work that is going to be done,” said Motsoaledi.

“Since then many governments have come to the fore. Last week I had a meeting with the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The amount of work they want us to do for the DRC is overwhelming.”

Motsoaledi said he asked himself if SA accepted offers made by these countries, “are we going to disappoint them, especially on security issues when they have put their trust in our hands, by virtue of some of the things that are happening there (GPW)?”

He said the matter had given him sleepless nights after the collapse of ICT systems at the GPW in February last year.

“There is a gentleman who has blown the whistle in an affidavit which was sent to the office of the speaker of parliament. He claimed that what happened there was not an accident, it is something that has been planned either by omission or by commission.”

Motsoaledi said the statement concerned him.

“It gave me sleepless nights because that is a national key point where security is very important. You wouldn’t like to have people who make things collapse deliberately, for whatever motive and so, it was worrying.”

Motsoaledi’s concerns grew when the legal profession was unable to finalise and execute estates because they could not get certain documents they needed.

This is the reason he approached President Ramaphosa to ask him to appoint an investigative tribunal into what was happening at the GPW.

Ramaphosa told him, that as a minister, he had “every right and power” to appoint such a tribunal or panel.

“That is why I chose to appoint the panel (which was initially chaired by advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi). The panel was to inspect the loss of data. Members of the committee were told when they were there, that there was a power surge (which damaged infrastructure) which they were supposed to investigate.”

The panel is now chaired by Papati Malavi.

Motsoaledi wants investigators to probe whether the lost data can be recovered and if so, how.

“They were also meant to look at security. The committee was told by the GPW about applications for jobs and CVs that were stolen. It will be discouraging for South Africans to apply for jobs, only to find that their CVs are selectively stolen.”

Motsoaledi said he too would not feel safe if he applied for a job at that institution.

Investigators were meant to come up with recommendations and consequence management.

“The most important recommendation was the issue of ICT governance, digital transformation and the corporate and physical governance of the whole institution by virtue of serving the countries I have mentioned.

“I wanted strong recommendations, so that when I come to you to boast about the number of countries that are using GPW, I am reassured there are no misdemeanours that will happen,” he said. 

www.samigration.com

 

 

 

Thousands of South Africans could qualify for British citizenship – what you should know

 

UK News  -10 July 2022

 

The UK is opening new routes to British citizenship for thousands of people who may previously not have qualified, says specialist migration firm Sable International.

The changes mean that if you have a parent, grandparent or great grandparent born in the UK or a former British territory, you could now have a claim to British citizenship.

The British Nationality and Borders Act 2021, which received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, has far-reaching effects, said Mishal Patel, director of Citizenship and Immigration at Sable International.

“In the past, many have been denied nationality rights from their maternal line because there has been no change in the law. If you can prove that you, your parents or your grandparents would have received British citizenship under this new law, were it not for that gender discrimination, you can now receive your British citizenship.”

Examples of these types of discrimination are:

• Gender discrimination in previous British nationality law

The new law is meant to combat the historical unfairness and injustice in earlier British nationality laws.

In the past, if your ancestors, who were born in the UK, were women, you as their descendant were not able to become a British citizen.

• British citizenship by descent for those born out of wedlock

Historically, you could not claim British citizenship through your father if your parents weren’t married at the time of your birth.

This discrimination was partly fixed in legislation that came into effect on 1 July 2006. If you were born after that date, the fact that your parents weren’t married is not relevant. However, with this new legislation coming into effect, people born before 1 July 2006 no longer have to make a special application for citizenship.

“These legislative changes will also apply to those who could have claimed British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC) had this discrimination not been in place. By becoming British Overseas Territory citizens, they would then be allowed to become full British citizens in certain situations.

“Simply put, if you would be a British Overseas Territory citizen if your parents had been married, you will now be able to make this claim,” said Patel.

What does this mean for British nationality going forward?

While the law is complex and, in some circumstances, relevant events could span many generations, Patel noted any of the following apply, you could have a claim if:

• You were married before 1 January 1983 to a spouse who could (or should) have been British;
• You have a UK-born grandmother and were born before 1 January 1988 in a country defined as a “foreign country” (which included South Africa after 30 May 1962);
• You have a UK-born grandmother, and your relevant parent spent at least three years in the UK before your birth;
• You were born between 1 January 1949 and 31 December 1982 and have a grandparent (but not a paternal grandfather) born in the UK.

“The examples above represent a tiny proportion of the solutions available and so it is vital that you complete our free British Citizenship Assessment to determine if you have a potential claim,” Patel said.

As a general rule, you should explore your rights to British nationality if you:

• Were adopted;
• Have a UK-born grandparent or great grandparent;
• Have a parent or grandparent born in a former British territory;
• Were married before 1983 to a person who had a family link back to the UK or a former British territory.

It is expected that this new law’s commencement date will be later this year, around October, Patel said.

www.samigration.com

 

Zimbabweans face a stark choice: start from zero in a broken country or live undocumented in SA

Groundup – 10 July 2022

 

From January 1 2023, hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans and their children will no longer be able to live, work and go to school legally in the republic

Three Zimbabweans who held Zimbabwean exemption permits (ZEPs), which the SA government has now scrapped, share their anxiety and anguish as they face deportation, uprooting their lives and children and starting all over again in Zimbabwe, or continuing to live here as undocumented migrants.

Shepherd Muroyiwa is one of about 178,000 Zimbabweans affected by the cabinet decision not to renew the ZEP, which expired in December 2021. ZEP holders were given until the end of December 2022 to legalise their status in the country by other means. For most this is not possible.

Muroyiwa runs a market in Parow, Cape Town, that sells fresh produce popular with immigrants — spinach, covo, rape, pumpkin leaves, okra, Mazoe orange crush concentrate, kapenta fish and mopani worms.

“There are no other people [here] selling what I specialise in. Moving to Zimbabwe would mean the death of my family’s livelihood,” says Muroyiwa. “It is like walking into darkness. We don’t know how we will survive.”

Muroyiwa started his business in 2009.

“We are only filling the gap and augmenting the SA economy. We can’t be accused of taking business from the citizens … There is empty space [a stall] right next to me. Why are they [South Africans] not taking it?

“If a South African takes over my business, to whom he is going to sell? As immigrants we have common foods we eat, and we sell to each other,” he says.

A preschool principal, who has been living in SA for 13 years and asked not to be identified, says she had hoped to get a waiver. A waiver allows the department of home affairs to disregard certain requirements for permission to stay, such as when an employer can prove they advertised for a job but no South Africans qualified.

She applied for a waiver from home affairs in December, but she has never even received a response. She followed up in February but was told she cannot start a new permit application until she gets a response.

She is anxious. She has copies of rejected waivers other Zimbabweans had received.

Relocating, she says, would be starting from zero.

“If we sell our belongings, it’s not going to be purchased for the actual value,” she says.

“My 12-year-old child speaks English and Afrikaans only. How is she going to be integrated in Zimbabwean government schools? … Children who have already moved to Zimbabwe are stressed. The adjustment is going to be huge.”

It is like walking into darkness. We don’t know how we will survive

Shepherd Muroyiwa

Another ZEP holder, who also asked to stay anonymous, teaches grade 5 maths. Only grade 8 to 12 maths teachers qualify for critical skills.

“I will lose my job … Mentally it’s eating me up, trying to think how I am going to survive,” he says.

He used to teach in a rural school in Zimbabwe but fled political violence in 2008.

“I had to run away from home, sleep in the mountains and eventually I came to SA. I had to sleep in a queue, braving cold, rainy weather for days before I got asylum, which I renewed every six months before the government implemented DZP [now the ZEP.]

“So, since then, I was on that permit. I got a teaching job in 2016. Before that I worked for a property management company. I then studied a BA in environmental management with Unisa and completed it last year,” he says.

He has two sons at university, a third in high school and a daughter in primary school. He says he has loans, furniture accounts and a mortgage to pay. But without legal status his bank account will be closed.

“I don’t even want to imagine it,” he says.

He says he will never get a job in Zimbabwe’s civil service.

“I would rather live here undocumented and I will only go when they deport me. This means I am turning myself into … a criminal to run away from law enforcement and home affairs officials, which is something that should not be happening to a professional person like me. Surely, the situation leaves me with no choice but to live under the radar?” he says.

“We are in this position because of this brotherhood in Africa where presidents are shielding one another instead of rebuking when they go astray. If SA had done the right thing from the beginning, we might not have been here or stayed this far,” he says, presumably referring to former president Thabo Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe in the 2000s, which many believe gave Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, a free hand to loot the country.

Activist Anthony Muteti says: “The situation has not improved in Zimbabwe. The SA government has not done enough to make … Zanu-PF accountable. They declared the election in Zimbabwe free and fair when people were intimidated and murdered.

“A lot of Zimbabweans are going to come back undocumented … The intensification of security at the border is not going to work; it is a dream, a fantasy. I come from a province close to SA where people used to walk to SA for so many years. Our forefathers have established families; it will go on forever.”

Julius Shamu, a Zimbabwe community leader, says: “As for the claims of Zimbabweans taking jobs from South Africans, I do not agree. How would people working for themselves take jobs from South Africans? How can you tell a person who has been living in the country for more than 10 years to go back to his country without proper planning?”

He says the Helen Suzman Foundation’s challenge to the government’s decision to not renew the ZEP gives Zimbabweans some hope. At least there are people and organisations fighting on their side, he says.

www,samigration.com