South African transport minister under fire over looming air navigation ‘crisis’

South Africa’s second-largest political party is urging a stronger response from the country’s transport ministry over weaknesses in air traffic control operations, and demanding the release of a report detailing safety and reliability concerns. Transport minister Barbara Creecy recently ordered the “precautionary suspension” of Air Traffic and Navigation Services chief Nosipho Mdawe, and an investigation into fulfilment of duties. But this has not satisfied the Democratic Alliance – part of a 10-member coalition government following last year’s general election – which describes the suspension as “nothing but an attempt to save face, rather than a genuine commitment to systemic reform”. “Until the full report detailing all the flaws in ATNS is provided to Parliament, its oversight function is being severely undermined,” the party adds, insisting that Creecy cannot serve as “investigator, judge and jury”. Creecy ordered the suspension as she provided an update on efforts to “stabilise and rebuild” ATNS on 12 March, three months after establishing a committee to investigate the root cause of safety and service-delivery issues. The committee found “critical” staffing shortages within the air traffic services division, shortcomings in the reliability of communication, navigation and surveillance systems, and suspension of flight procedures over lapsed maintenance. Creecy says actions taken include accelerated recruitment of personnel and procurement for system upgrades. Updating of instrument flight procedures, which have caused delays at a number of airports, is a particularly urgent concern. Shortly before the committee was set up, Mdawe had admitted, at a stakeholder event in early December, that the procedures situation was causing “significant inconvenience”, and attributed it to several factors including “poaching” of procedure-design specialists and technical staff by other aviation companies.<br/>