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Zuma defends minister over airport blunder

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma says that International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane must be treated like other diplomats and should never have been asked to put her handbag through the scanner at Oslo airport, Norway.

Zuma said yesterday that he had instructed officials in charge of state protocol to make sure that foreign airports did not repeat the blunder in future.

Earlier this year, Nkoana-Mashabane refused to have her handbag scanned at Oslo Airport. She missed her flight and government had to pay more than R235000 to charter a private jet to get her to her appointment in Sofia, Bulgaria.

This raised the ire of the DA, who accused her of "vanity and excesses".

But in a parliamentary reply yesterday, Zuma defended Nkoana-Mashabane, saying she had acted in accordance "with the provisions of the Vienna Convention and the customary international law".

State protocol officials would have to make sure that when she travelled abroad, Nkoana-Mashabane "is treated in a manner that is consistent with the provisions of the Vienna Convention and customary international law", Zuma said.

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