78 SA Flyer Magazine

REPORT: CHRIS MARTINUS

It’s difcult to be upbeat in South Africa

these days. As commissions of enquiry,

investigations and the press reveal

seemingly bottomless corruption, the

looting of the country’s resources and

the collapse of its infrastructure, the knot

in the stomach is akin to that of a pilot

SA (RAASA) and expressed the hope that with strong

leadership we may have a strong, transparent and

accountable CAA to serve general aviation pilots and aircraft

owners efciently. This is perhaps an optimistic view, but with effort

and fortitude we may yet get there. The runway threshold is not in

sight and we are being battered by turbulence and frightened by

lightning as we peer into the murk looking for the runway lights and

a safe landing.

Aero Club in their recent newsletter entitled “RAASA is going –

what now?” expressed similar misgivings about the future.

the lack of any legal provision for transparency and accountability

would allow for the creation of a corruption-ready monster which

would ultimately shove its own parents out of the nest. AOPA was

grudgingly offered a seat at the RAASA table, which we refused

because we did not wish to be useful idiots in their scheme.

RAASA was registered as a company under the Companies

Act with the provisions and limitations of a non-prot company.

The RAASA Articles of Association were later amended to take

advantage of a feature that allowed such a company to exist without

having to have any members at all, only directors.

nevertheless seemed satised by the regulatory requirement that

anyone who wants documents issued by RAASA must be a member

of Aero Club and one of its afliates.

The penny didn’t drop when , in April last year, DCA Ms Poppy

Khoza instructed the chairperson of RAASA that RAASA would be

wound up and its functions returned to the CAA by 1 April 2019.

Now that their use-by date is rapidly approaching, Aero Club is

beginning to realise that they will simply be a voice crying in the

wilderness.

79 SA Flyer Magazine

the RAASA directors appointed by the

DCA have the slightest personal interest

in recreational aviation, making nonsense

of the refrain that RAASA provides us all

with ‘self-regulation’. According to the

current information given by the Companies

and Intellectual Property Commission

(CIPC), three of those RAASA directors

are CAA employees: Asruf Seedat,

CAA Executive for Finance, Mmanare

in terms of this Act may not, directly or

indirectly, as owner, shareholder, director,

ofcer, partner or otherwise, be engaged in

an aviation undertaking or business”. There

is no provision allowing for any exceptions

to this law. We believe that this applies

to all the RAASA directors, and certainly

applies to CAA employees. However,

there has been no satisfactory explanation

forthcoming from the DCA as to why the Act

senior executive at faltering state airline SA

Express, which is not an entity well-known

for its interest in recreational aviation.

THE R2.4 BILLION CLOUD OVER

RAASA

In May this year, the press reported

that Merriam Mochoele and another SAX

executive allegedly engineered a R2.4

billion deal to provide SAX with fuel. The

contract was with a little-known music

has also been involved in fuel deals with

Wonderboom Airport through the City of

Tshwane.

A complaint was made to the Press

Ombudsman regarding the press articles,

which was dismissed, as was an application

for leave to appeal against the Ombud’s

decision.