Home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba on Tuesday told members of parliament that there was no approval policy that has been established regarding the privatisation of sections of national ports of entry.

“If the minister had granted permission, the minister would have followed legal prescripts until the end. In the absence of such legal prescripts, we stand with our belief that there was no approval of this decision formally granted and the matter is really irrelevant. 

"But the issue we are raising, as I say, is the matter of principle which applies to whether the poor are entitled to good quality service only after the rich have received them. To whether the laws of the country can be disregarded when the rich are concerned and whether the government should provide free services to the rich,” said the minister.

Gigaba was briefing the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the proposed privatisation of a section of the OR Tambo International Airport to Fireblade Aviation, as well as the possibility of privatising sections of Cape Town International Airport and the airport in George in the Southern Cape.