The disastrous Vukani aviation project has failed and cadet pilots should be relocated elsewhere

9 August 2015

The lives and future livelihoods of dozens of young, bright cadet pilots who were recruited into the Vukani Aviation Programme, a National Skills Fund programme managed by the Department of Higher Education and Training, are at risk.

The DA calls for the programme to be halted permanently and for all cadets to be relocated to alternative flying schools in order to finish their training, which has cost the NSF some R77 million, in a reliable and high quality setting.

The DA recommended over a month ago to the Department that the Vukani programme be investigated for a range of alleged failings, including allegations that students had signed dubious contracts and had been misled as to what their training would constitute. Further allegations made and conveyed to the Department were that:

- the School in which the project was located, SAFTA, had only a handful of working planes

- non-working planes were taken to other airports when the Civil Aviation Authority visited the school to evaluate safety

- the school was charging far more than the normal fee for training the pilots

- the school had fired a number of experienced instructors and replaced them with fewer, far less experienced ones; and that maintenance of planes was inadequate.

There were also allegations that the CEO of the School and the Project, the man who once claimed to be President Zuma’s pilot, Nhlanhla Dube, had been using planes bought by National Skills Fund money for his own personal benefit, and had bought himself a luxury car out of the R77m allocated to the project. He was also alleged to have intimidated students who were unhappy with their situation.

Given these and other very serious allegations, the DA has already called for a full investigation and a forensic audit of the School and project.

But the Department has taken over a month to respond to the DA call. It has in the meantime grounded all its students and employed an “evaluator”. However the Department has not clarified the terms of reference of the evaluator, or indicated whether a forensic audit will take place.

Given that students will be unable to fly the School’s planes with any guarantee of safety for some considerable time it is entirely unsatisfactory that they should continue to sit around doing nothing for what might become a protracted period while the “evaluation”, probable “investigation” and ultimately the forensic audit, might take place, presumably to be followed by remedial action on points where the project is found to be failing.

I have written to the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, to propose that the contract with Nhlanhla Dube, Vukani Aviation and SAFTA be immediately terminated; that a full investigation be undertaken, including a forensic investigation, of Nhlanhla Dube, Vukani Aviation and SAFTA; and that the unspent portion of the R77m be allocated to a range of other schools, so that the students might complete their training and obtain a respected and respectable qualification.

In the current circumstances, they risk not completing their training at all, or completing it but finding their qualification tainted by the current reputation of the Vukani project and SAFTA.

These young people deserve better.

Statement issued by Prof Belinda Bozzoli MP, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, August 10 2015