Growing incidents of Air Traffic Navigation system issues, Air Traffic Controller capacity issues, and dilapidation at airports across the country demands proper investigatory oversight and accountability from Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport. The DA will write to the Committee Chairperson, requesting an appearance by Minister Barbara Creecy for her to transparently explain the status of these, her plans to fix them, and for her to provide the content of an independent investigatory report to the Committee.
Minister Creecy is in receipt of a report by a panel of experts into the failures of the Air Traffic Navigation Services company, which found gaps in safety practices and reliability issues in surveillance, navigation, and communication systems of the national ATNS, but this report has not yet been provided to Parliament.
While Creecy has already acted to suspend the ATNS CEO Nosipho Mdawe we see this as nothing but an attempt to save face, rather than a genuine commitment to systemic reform, change and improvement. And until the full report detailing all the flaws in ATNS is provided to Parliament, its oversight function is being severely undermined. Creecy cannot be investigator, judge and jury of her own Ministerial function.
While ATNS is not providing full scale safety and navigation services in the sky, ACSA is not providing them on the ground.
In January 2025, flights at Cape Town International Airport were delayed and diverted due to a fuel pump failure under ACSA's management.
At the same time, fuel shortages at OR Tambo International Airport seriously affected some international carriers.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
In March 2025, passengers at George Airport faced chaos due to ongoing failures in ATNS's navigation system, causing severe delays and cancellations.
The DA has long warned that ACSA and ATNS are failing under incompetent leadership, often due to ANC cadre deployment. These failures are not just inconveniences; they pose an existential threat to tourism, business investment, and South Africa's international reputation as a transport hub.
Minister Barbara Creecy, alongside the senior management of the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), must account to Parliament on the increasingly dismal state of our aviation infrastructure.
As an economy that relies on tourism, we cannot afford the impression to be created that our air transport safety is a risk. Minister Creecy must play open cards both on the true state of the issues, and on her urgent plans to rectify them.
Getting our air transport safety urgently up to scratch cannot be another ANC Ministerial example of talk without action. The time for air safety action is now.
