Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba
Photo by: Duane Daws
Some of the country's smaller international airports needed to have their status reviewed, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.
“Take Port Elizabeth for example. PE is not an international airport. It was designated an international airport for the purposes of the 2010 world cup and we should have taken that status back,” he said.
He was briefing Parliament’s home affairs committee and outlining some of the problems at the country's ports of entry.
Once an airport was declared international, the department had to deploy immigration officers to it, who spent 365 days waiting for airlines to land there.
“Nobody lands in PE. Same would apply to Polokwane Gateway and a number of other international airports. They are just wrongfully designated as international airports,” he said.
Gigaba said he was not officially saying their statuses would be taken away.
“I’m saying we need to review so we can better deploy our resources to where they are required.”