Times Of Swaziland: WHERE IS THE  KING’S PLANE?

WHERE IS THE  KING’S PLANE?
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BY CASSANDRA SHAW on 27/03/2015 04:56:00


MBABANE – Following the return of His Majesty the King from a recent trip to
Japan and the Republic of Namibia using a hired Jet, questions have been raised
by Swazis about the whereabouts of the King’s jet which he normally uses for
official travels to attend summits and meetings abroad.
Information gathered from reliable sources, who are very close to the matter but
requested not to be identified, is that the plane has been attached in Canada
where the Swaziland Government had taken it for routine maintenance.
The attachment was issued by a court held in camera in Canada, in favour of
Shanmuga Rethenam, popularly known as Shan of former Salgaocar company.
The source informed this publication that, Shan’s company, Southern Africa
Resources Limited (SARL) – which was a shareholder at formerly Salgaocar (now
known as SG Iron Ore Mining), last year shut down after operating the Ngwenya
Iron ore mine, leaving many service providers unpaid.
These include transport operators in the trucking business, railway line
services, sub-contractors, financial services, a power utility provider and
others. The debt owed to the service providers is more than E790 million. The
debts are said to also extend to service providers at the port in Mozambique.
The source said during the court case, Shan submitted that he was being owed
about E35 million (3.5 Million US Dollars) by a Swazi Company which is operating
the jet on behalf of the Government of Swaziland.
“What was surprising was that, there was no defence from the Swazi authorities
prior to the judgment being issued.