South African presidential guards and journalists accompanying President Cyril Ramaphosa on a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia remained stuck at Polish capital, Warsaw on Saturday.
A charter flight carrying the team of over 120 people was blocked upon landing at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport on Thursday, with Polish authorities saying the team failed "to comply with standard entry procedures", according to Poland's foreign affairs ministry.
The plane was not allowed to travel onwards to Russia despite a promise by Polish officials on steps being taken to resolve the situation, journalists onboard said.
The group is now due to return to South Africa on Monday without the president.
Zelensky meeting
President Ramaphosa and several other African leaders met with Ukrainian president Zelensky on Friday and were due to meet with president Putin of Russia on Saturday.
In a statement on Friday, Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya termed the incident in Poland as "deeply disturbing".
"Dangerous goods were on board the plane, which South African representatives did not have permission to bring in," Poland's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"In addition, there were persons on board the aircraft of whose presence the Polish side had not been notified beforehand," the statement added.
Angry response
The group was later allowed to disembark but without their luggage, eliciting an immediate angry response from the head of the president’s security detail.
Major General Wally Rhoode claimed the holdup had put the “life of our president in jeopardy”.
The president's spokesman later said the incident had not compromised Ramaphosa's security.
President's safety
"I would like to assure all South Africans that there has been no compromise whatsoever to the president's safety as a result of the impasse that involved the charter flight with the presidential protection services team and the media," Magwenya said in a video on Twitter.
The South African president is leading a high-level delegation of African leaders in a peace mission seeking to end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
