Air traffic services have collapsed through neglect and incompetence.
If you are so inclined or ever in a position to do so, here is a fool-proof recipe for milking a state-owned enterprise (SOE).
It has been used multiple times by the ANC’s deployees since 1994, so it must work:
1. Be an ANC member in good standing. Know the top brass and the Deployment Committee;
2. Choose an entity which has a big, taxpayer-supplied budget;
3. Ensconce yourself as CEO, playing the race or gender card if anyone questions your qualifications;
4. Bring in all your mates who have previous experience in overpaid parastatal jobs, particularly if they failed at them;
5. Appoint them to key positions in the organisation, forcing out incumbents, perhaps in the name of “transformation”;
6. Create extra posts if there are not enough;
7. Inflate the salaries of all those posts;
8. When your comrades can’t do the job, bring in consultants at hugely inflated costs; and
9. If anyone complains, pull out your cards (see above).
ALSO READ: Air traffic control alarm: Risks in SA’s understaffing, outdated or unmaintained equipment
According to whistle-blowers at the Air Traffic and Navigation Systems (ATNS), this is exactly what has happened at this body… and it has led to the collapse of air traffic services through neglect and incompetence.
This means, at the minimum, huge flight disruptions because internationally required flight procedures, especially those for instrument landings, cannot be implemented.
Because of this, airports such as George and East London have had to be closed when bad weather means flights cannot rely on Visual Flight Rules. It has meant passenger planes having to “go around” or divert to other airports, costing millions of rands in fuel, a huge inconvenience to travellers, as well as the increase of risk in such flight conditions.
As we have seen, when SOEs are “captured” there can be billion in losses. But with ATNS, people’s lives are on the line.
NOW READ: Critical issues in South Africa’s air traffic control
