by the Minister of Transport MAC MAHARAJ
23 November 1998 at Ikhaya Lokondiza, Brooklyn, Pretoria
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a pleasure to launch of the South African Civil Aviation Authority.
Tonight is a milestone, not only for civil aviation in South Africa, but also for the National Department of Transport, as we launch our fourth agency this year.
On 1 April this year three agencies were created out of the restructured Department of Transport to run as independent, statutory authorities operating on commercial lines at arm’s length from government: they were the South African Maritime Safety Authority, the South African Cross-Border Road Transport Agency and the South African National Roads Agency. Tonight is the turn of the South African Civil Aviation Authority.
The opening of each agency marks a milestone in the restructuring of the Department of Transport because we move closer to our core business of policy formulation and regulation.
It also gives focus to key areas of transport activity that will now take place in commercially run agencies dedicated to maximising productivity and the growth of services and industry in their respective areas.
In the aviation sector over the past four years, the Department of Transport has overseen the corporatisation of the Airports Company of South Africa and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company.
The first two phases of the privatisation of the Airports Company were successfully completed this year with Aeroporti di Roma, from Italy, becoming the ACSA’s new strategic equity partner, and black empowerment groups taking up a further 4,2% of the equity in the company.
Along with taxes and dividends, this means that ACSA contributed R1,3 billion to the fiscus of our country in the 1997/8 financial year.
Tonight we welcome the South African Civil Aviation Authority, which will not only do the day-to-day operations of the old Chief Directorate in my department but is also charged with promoting and regulating civil aviation in relation to safety functions.
The agency will operate at arm’s length from government and will be funded through a combination of user charges, a fuel levy which was agreed will be implemented from 1 January 1999, as well as government funding for services rendered by the CAA on its behalf.
In acknowledgement of the importance of civil aviation and the enormity of the task that lies ahead, government will continue to subsidise the CAA on a declining basis over a three-year period.
We have consulted extensively with industry before introducing these charges and a schedule of charges has been endorsed by the Civil Aviation Regulation Committee, which involves a wide-range of industry participants.
I am aware that the airline associations are concerned about the fuel levy and the increase in charges, but a fuel levy is the most equitable and fair mechanism for applying a charge for these services across the aviation industry.
Let me assure you tonight that government is committed to ensuring that rates are competitive and commercially reasonable. This is not an exercise in profiteering but rather an initiative to introduce sound commercial practices, whereby the user pays for the services he or she uses, into all areas of economic activity.
A fuel levy was seen as the most appropriate mechanism because the CAA will be involved in activities and services that benefit the industry as a whole, but which cannot be tied to a particular client or product.
The levy on Jet A and Avgas means that the aviation industry will pay for the services it uses and in direct proportion to its usage, thereby spreading the load of the levy among all participants (passenger, freight, charter, general aviation and the military), which is fair if we want this sector to grown as a sustainable industry.
This process of transformation within our transport sector has taken considerable time and energy, and I would like to thank the aviation industry for the role they have played in this vital process for our country.
Transport and civil aviation will continue to play an increasingly important part in the economic and social development of South Africa and the Southern African region.
All our aviation agencies, including the CAA, will therefore be actively involved in critical aviation issues in the region, and will continue to promote the interests of our region internationally under the strategic leadership of the National Department of Transport.
Many of our SADC colleagues are here this evening and we appreciate your support for our new authority.
As you may be aware, a Board of Directors, chaired by Mr Israel Skosana, Chief Executive South African Express Airways, governs the activities of the Authority.
The civil aviation industry is directly represented on the Board through Mr Pieter van Hoven, Managing Director of Comair / British Airways and Mr Graeme Conlyn, Executive Chairman of National Airways and Finance Corporation.
Other areas of business expertise are reflected in the Board appointments of:
Mr Naran Maharaj, Director of KMMT Brey Inc., a chartered accountant;
Ms Phiti Matlala, a senior organisational development advisor at Eskom;
Mr Cromwell Mashengete, a fund manager with Nedcor Investment Bank; and
Ms Nothemba Mlonzi, a director of an Eastern Cape law firm.
The Board will be required to report to me regularly and ensure the effective execution of the CAA’s mandate through a performance agreement between the CAA Board and myself. This will be a central pillar in ensuring accountability of the CAA in terms of the mandate provided in it’s founding legislation.
By now most of you will know Trevor Abrahams, the new Chief Executive of the CAA, who will be responsible for providing leadership to the CAA as it establishes itself to achieve safer skies in South Africa and the region.
It now gives me great pleasure to declare the headquarters of the South African Civil Aviation Authority, Ikhaya Lokundiza, the home of flight, officially opened.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to now call on the Chairman of the CAA
Board to join me in signing the Interim Memorandum of Understanding which will set out the responsibilities and expectations between the CAA Board and myself.
Issued by Didi Moyle: PA and Media Liaison Officer to the Minister of Transport
Didi Moyle
PA and Media Liaison Officer to the Minister of Transport
Pretoria: (012) 309 3131 (phone) or (012) 328 3194 (fax)
Cape Town: (021) 457260 (phone) or (021) 461 6845 (fax)
email: moyle@ mweb.co.za or moyled@ndot.pwv.gov.za (Pretoria only)
cell: 082 808 5108