While on a week-long oversight visit to Johannesburg this week, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport has called for continuing demographic transformation in the country’s aviation sector. But the Committee did express satisfaction with the governance of the aviation agencies it visited, particularly the Air Traffic & Navigation Services (ATNS).
“Entities need to work hard on transformation targets, it is what is best for the country and the previously disadvantaged persons,” affirmed Committee Chairperson Mosebenzi Zwane. “This has got to be a constant matter entities report achievable targets on.” (Zwane, who was Mineral Resources Minister in the previous administration of President Jacob Zuma, and before that Member of the Executive Council for Agriculture in the Free State Provincial Government, has been implicated in major corruption scandals.)
“This [aviation] is a sector that can make or break our economy, this sector generates billions of rands,” he asserted. Transformation had to be all-inclusive and embrace all elements of aviation, including management, procurement of goods, and human capital.
“The industry is highly technical, but needs to reflect the demographics of the country in all facets, and needs to ensure representation of women,” he said. “The entities are doing well and are internationally recognised, but acknowledging lack of transformation is not enough.”
Three major aviation agencies fall under the Department of Transport. They are the Airports Company South Africa, ATNS, and the South African Civil Aviation Authority.
The Committee members also familiarised themselves with other, non-aviation, agencies of the Department of Transport. These included the South African National Roads Agency, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency and the Road Traffic Management Corporation.