{"id":7355,"date":"2013-07-18T07:12:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7355"},"modified":"2013-07-18T07:12:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:12:25","slug":"zuma-guard-linked-to-blue-light-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7355","title":{"rendered":"Zuma guard linked to &#8216;blue light&#8217; crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/blue_light.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7356\" alt=\"blue_light\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/blue_light-300x201.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/blue_light-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/blue_light.jpg 472w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The black BMW which sped through a red traffic light and crashed in Braamfontein was registered to a presidential bodyguard, The Star reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Maj-Gen Mzingaye Mxolisi Dladla, of the police&#8217;s presidential protection service, reportedly refused to comment to the newspaper about the car, which was reportedly part of a blue light convoy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t discuss anything about my unit, to any paper,&#8221; he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to The Star, presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said he could not comment on the crash, as &#8220;all blue light protection is under the SAPS, you need to ask them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was reported that President Jacob Zuma retained Dladla as his personal bodyguard after he was dismissed as deputy president in 2005.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When Zuma became president, Dladla was one of the bodyguards in Zuma&#8217;s closest circle, known as the Echo Group and was appointed head of the presidential protection service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Tuesday, the car reportedly registered to Dladla was involved in a crash near the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Braamfontein.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When photographers began taking pictures of the crash, the car&#8217;s number plates were removed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Johannesburg metro police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar told the newspaper the police would investigate the crash. &#8211; Sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The black BMW which sped through a red traffic light and crashed in Braamfontein was registered to a presidential bodyguard, The Star reported on Thursday. Maj-Gen Mzingaye Mxolisi Dladla, of the police&#8217;s presidential protection service, reportedly refused to comment to the newspaper about the car, which was reportedly part of a blue light convoy. &#8220;I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7355\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Zuma guard linked to &#8216;blue light&#8217; crash&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[4007,1902,4008,345],"class_list":["post-7355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-blue-light-vehicles","tag-mac-maharaj","tag-mzingaye-mxolisi-dladla","tag-zuma"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/blue_light.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7357,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions\/7357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}