SAA and ACSA should report to Parliament on airport security processes

After years of mismanagement, a once proud national carrier is in a state of decay. Last night, another 15 SAA staff were held by UK authorities after a 5kg stash of cocaine was found in the vanity case of one of the crew members. This is the second incident of this kind within a month and bears testament to the lack of adequate management capacity within the national airline and ACSA.  The Democratic Alliance calls for SAA and ACSA to immediately make a full report to parliament on the state of South Africa's airport security processes.

We have long held the view that our government should not be operating airports or running airlines. In the past five years, SAA has accumulated losses of R16.6 billion and has cost the South African taxpayer R8.9 billion in handouts. In 2008 it posted a further R1.3 billion loss due to poor fuel price hedging strategies and other restructuring costs. SAA is currently under the management of an acting CEO, as the board has placed the CEO, Khaya Ngqula, on "special leave" due to accusations of tender irregularities.

After last month's security breach SAA and ACSA were adamant that there would be a full restructuring of their security procedures. Clearly, the crew member(s) involved in this crime still did not see that as a sufficient deterrent to their actions. The UK authorities also held little faith in these promises and were ready to arrest the criminals concerned on their arrival overseas.

For years we have been told that SAA is a strategic state asset that acts as a well respected and broadly followed marketing tool for the South African brand. Today, newspapers across the world view that very South African brand as one of ineptitude, broken promises and criminality. The future of SAA is both a cost and reputation issue; money wasted on the national airline should be better spent elsewhere within government on uplifting the poor rather than subsidising the flights of corporate clients, whilst the continuation of incidences like those experienced at Heathrow International Airport over the past month does irreparable damage to how we are perceived abroad.

Statement issued by Manie van Dyk, MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson for public enterprises, February 17 2009

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