Pilots home from Angola
28/02/2004 09:07 - (SA)
Erika Gibson
Pretoria - Two South African pilots have returned home after being kept in Angola for two weeks following the murder of an Indian businessman.
"We will probably never know why we were being kept there. But that doesn't mean that we won't be going back," Graeme Conlyn, marketing director of National Airways Corporation and co-pilot Anthony van der Geest said on Friday.
The two South Africans were kept in Angola after Indian businessman Ashwani Puri, a banker, was murdered in his hotel room in the Angolan capital.
Conlyn and Van der Geest flew Puri and three other Indian businessmen to Luanda more than two weeks ago. One day later, Puri was murdered in his hotel room. The rest of his entourage left a day later for India via South Africa, but the two South African citizens were forbidden to leave the country, and their plane was impounded.
"There was a lot of pressure on Angola to let us go the past few days. The South African embassy and our legal advisors insisted on answers.
"Eventually the biggest challenge was to find the right person to do the paperwork. We have business interests in Angola and we didn't want to rock the boat."
"We are going to try and resolve the matter at the Angolan embassy in South Africa to clear the air.
"I can't even tell anybody who wants to do business in Angola how to stay out of trouble. You won't get away with illegal stuff.
"With us, it was business as usual. We flew people in and expected to leave soon afterwards. But the next moment we were 'in custody'."
Graeme said they were interrogated by the criminal investigating directorate of the Angolan police, but released by the secret police for national safety.
"All we can think of is that there was a bureaucratic blunder. We are very thankful to be home."
Edited by Schalk Jonker
