Polish radio station Radio Zet says the South African Airways (SAA) plane that has been stuck on the tarmac at an airport in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, since Thursday afternoon with part of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s delegation on board will not be able to disembark.
“It turns out that some of the delegation do not have the documents to leave the airport. Secondly, unofficially, the president’s additional bodyguards have weapons. They do not have the proper permits for them,” Radio Zet said.
The station’s reporter, Michał Dzienyński, said Polish security said people in the delegation could leave the aircraft as long as they did not carry their weapons with them. The plane is expected to leave Poland this afternoon.
The director for the national security department in Poland has also tweeted to say some of the delegation did not have permission to carry weapons in Poland, and “were not given permission to leave the plane with their weapons”.
An airport spokeswoman, Anna Dermont, told Radio ZET that food and drinks were being given to the plane’s passengers.