Thank you, Chairperson, Minister Radebe, friends, colleagues and comrades. The airlines operating within South Africa, our civil aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority and our air traffic navigational services all have an excellent international safety reputation.
It is true that in recent weeks there has once more been a spate of accidents on the light and leisure side of aviation - what is known as general aviation. Most of these appear to have been related to human error. Notwithstanding these unfortunate incidents, it is simply a fact that it is infinitesimally safer to travel in our skies than, unfortunately, it is to travel on our roads. However, the tragedy of 9/11 in the United States and concerns about the safety of air travel in some parts of the world, including in parts of our continent, underline just how important it is not to become complacent about aviation standards and about safety and security. It is against this general global background that the South African Civil Aviation Authority, the CAA, is regularly audited by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO. In recent years the US Federal Aviation Authority has also been auditing other national regulators, particularly in countries like our own, into which US airlines are flying, or whose airlines are flying into the US. I would like to be anti-imperialist, but given the FAA's enormous experience and expertise, I think, as South Africans, we should welcome these audits that they have been conducting.
The present legislation, in fact, flows directly out of some of these recent audits, which raised questions on the structuring of our civil aviation regulatory regime, in particular in regard to the lines of reporting, command and answerability around aviation safety and security.
The problems in this area arose from the fact that there were three separate Acts that had been passed at separate times - going back to the Aviation Act of 1962; the Civil Aviation Offences Act of 1972; and the more recent South African Civil Aviation Authority Act of 1998. These Acts did not properly align with each other and this Bill now seeks to repeal all of those Acts and introduce a more aligned dispensation for aviation regulation.
Among the challenges that were raised in these international audits of our system was the fact that we had an Aviation Commissioner sitting in the Department of Transport and reporting directly to the Minister on the one hand, and then on the other hand a CEO of the CAA reporting to a board, with the board reporting to the Minister. The lines of authority and responsibility were open to potential confusion. Fortunately I don't think that ever happened in practice, but if there had been a serious or major national security threat, for instance, these confusing lines of command, authority and responsibility might have provoked problems.
In the past several months we've tried to produce a patch-up solution to this - we've made the commissioner and the CEO of the CAA one and the same person. Clearly that was a temporary solution, so in this current legislation we have sought to clean up this whole area. We have done away with a separate commissioner and CEO and created a Director of Civil Aviation. That director will head the CAA and on critical matters of aviation safety and security the director will report directly to the Minister.
What then is the role of the CAA board? This became a critical area of debate and dispute and discussion in our public hearings. Some stakeholders favoured a board with full responsibility for all of the CAA's functions. That is, they favoured a model in which the director would report to the board on all matters and the board would then report to the Minister. On the other hand, some of us wondered why we needed a board at all. The CAA is, after all, a safety regulator and not a publicly owned entity operating as a commercial enterprise like Transnet, SAA or Eskom. In those latter cases, like Transnet or SAA, a board focusing on the complex corporate market interests of the entity makes eminent sense.
In the end, the committee settled for a hybrid arrangement for the CAA, as was proposed in the original Bill tabled before Parliament. The director, as I said, reports directly to the Minister on the key regulatory functions of safety and security. The board, however, is responsible for corporate governance matters such as financial management, human resource policies, etc.
In the committee stage we added a further functional responsibility for the board, because among its tasks, the CAA is also a service provider to the private sector. It licences pilots, for instance. We've now added that the board should be required to monitor the service standards and customer satisfaction levels and report to the Minister on any matters concerning such issues.
So we didn't take the more radical step, which some of us favoured, of entirely dispensing with the CAA board. The committee, however, in its report to Parliament on this Bill, has recommended that the new Parliament - and presumably therefore the new executive - should do a more comprehensive review of the broad spectrum of corporate and governance models that are in place for a range of public entities.
We have SOEs, public utilities, agencies of all kinds, economic regulators, safety regulators, etc. Over the past three Parliaments, we have surely begun to develop a more grounded experience. I think in the mid-1990s we might have made the assumption that a one-size-fits-all institutional arrangement for this vast array of entities made sense - a kind of corporate entity with a board of directors, etc.
In our experience, certainly over these last four years, as this portfolio committee, I think we've run into a number of problems in this whole governance because we are dealing with different entities and they're not the same kind of entity. Whether the same corporate structure is appropriate is something that we would like to see reviewed by the next government and the next Parliament.
The committee is recommending that next year some kind of White Paper policy process, perhaps led by the Department of Public Enterprises and by the corresponding portfolio committee here in Parliament, should review our experience across the spectrum of parastatal entities.
In this legislation we have chosen to strike a more cautious middle road. In addition to these matters, this rather long and technically complicated Bill also establishes an independent Aviation Safety Investigation Board in compliance with Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention. The Bill also gives effect to provisions of the international Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft.
I would like to thank our hardworking colleagues from the Department of Transport, including Anwar and the team that he led. Given its technical complexities, this was not an easy piece of legislation, and so our special thanks go to the drafters and also to the state law advisers. I know, as a chairperson, that my own preferred, rather open-ended workshop style of tackling legislation like this does not make it easy for the drafters or the lawyers, but hopefully it results in a better product at the end of the day. Thanks also to our colleagues from the CAA and its board, and to the civil aviation sector, that kept us on our toes as a committee and helped us tremendously with their professional and technical knowledge. Finally, thank you to all the members of the portfolio committee. The ANC supports the Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]
Chairperson, firstly I would like to welcome the Minister in the House. We haven't seen much of him and I trust that while he is in the precincts of this Parliament, he will go to his office and pick up some pressing correspondence that I have sent to him recently.
The Bill before us is the culmination of a process that started some time ago and, as has been said by the two speakers before me, this was brought about as a result of and compliance with the Regulations of the International Civil Aviation Association, and to address matters of concern which were raised by the FAA.
Both these agencies report on and audit the aviation safety and security status of some 89 states worldwide to ensure that they are compliant with international standards and, in South Africa's case, that we meet our obligations applicable to the conventions and agreements that we have signed.
During the 2007-08 financial year both these reports gave South Africa Category 1 status, which is of major strategic importance to South Africa. Failure to maintain this status would have resulted in the closure of routes and the prevention of aircraft being flown by our carriers to the USA and abroad, and would have severe implications for our preparations for the Fifa World Cup in 2010.
To this end, the Bill repeals, consolidates and amends the current aviation laws whilst providing for a newly structured and independent Aviation Investigation Board, the appointment of a director reporting directly to the Minister and in so doing separating the current dual function of the chief executive officer/commissioner of the Civil Aviation Authority, CAA.
The role of the CAA's present board now changes from one of being purely the accounting authority of the entity under section 49(2)(a) of the Public Finance Management Act, in other words, oversight of the corporate governance element of the CAA, on the one hand.
The director, on the other hand, is now tasked with oversight powers and functions as embraced in the Bill before us, including all technical civil aviation safety standards. His or her financial responsibilities will be held to account through the normal Auditor- General's reporting function whilst one of his or her prime roles will be, through the Department of Transport, to monitor, implement and enforce the National Aviation Security Program, Nasp, and to serve on the National Aviation Security Committee. This body comprises aviation and security personnel from the state entities and also relevant government departments.
The object of this committee would be to advise the director with regard to Aviation Security Policy and co-ordinate the proper and diligent implementation of the Nasp. The success of any such programme relies heavily on the support of the aviation industry and it would be imperative for the director to meet regularly with these stakeholders that our chairperson spoke about to ensure that they conform to international and domestic standards and regulations which may be introduced from time to time.
One of the more positive aspects of the Bill was that it removes any chances of conflict of interest or opportunity of corruption by any person appointed to perform any function in terms of this Bill. Clearly, the authors have learnt from the history of this authority and all the problems associated with the likes of Messrs Trevor Abrahams, Myeza and Naidoo, who cost the CAA and our taxpayers millions in corruption. Also, in trying to get rid of them, we had to pay them millions of rands.
One aspect which stood out in deliberations on the Bill was the apparent need for the establishment of the Aviation Regulatory Authority, which my chairperson has already covered, and this would take care of the nearly R180 million in the form of user fees, fuel levies and aircraft safety charges that come into the CAA every year. This is something that needs really good control and independent regulation if it is to avoid a budget balancing exercise which the CAA may try to introduce. But more importantly, it will prevent the payment of excessively high salaries to personnel and the acquisition of plush offices and fancy cars for its management.
The DA will be keeping a very close eye on this type of expenditure until something is enacted to regulate the level of levies and what they can be used for.
The DA will nonetheless be supporting the Bill, you will be pleased to know, Mr Minister. Thank you.
Chairperson, the Civil Aviation Bill is very important because it has the function of conducting safety and security oversight. South African Airways has been one of the safest carriers in the world and most certainly in Africa. However, to maintain this standard we must continue to monitor the safety performance of the aviation industry. We have to look at the risk factors and safety and security trends. Without a doubt we have to make use of major aviation skills and do all we can to retain the technical skills in our country.
The Bill was a complicated one which needed much discussion. Firstly, I must say the size of the Bill was intimidating. However, the chairman and the committee were courageous in their approach. It is also important to add that the Department of Transport and the legal advisers were extremely patient and helpful. The Aviation Safety Investigation Board and the operators were also on hand to clarify certain aspects of the Bill.
The main issue that the IFP grappled with was the director's position. It was our assumption that there was a danger of forming two centres of power. He or she would interact with the board and was also permitted to go directly to the Minister of Transport. This was a cause for concern.
It was made clear to us that the director would only go to the Minister regarding matters pertaining to the threat or imminent risk to safety or security. Eventually there was a statement by the committee acknowledging that the issue of the director will be revisited.
I regret that the Bill had to be debated today, and not on Thursday, which would have been after our caucus meeting. The IFP supports the Bill. Thank you.
Chairperson, the ACDP shares the view that there was a clear need to tighten up and consolidate legislation regarding civil aviation, particularly following the 9/11 tragedy and, domestically, the now infamous incident of an engine falling off a Nationwide aircraft, as well as a spate of fatal light aircraft incidents and accidents in the recent past.
Aviation safety cannot be compromised in any manner, particularly in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup when many thousands of additional tourists will be coming to South Africa. This Bill will also address comments and concerns expressed by the FAA in its audit report and other concerns expressed by those involved in the local aviation industry.
The primary purpose of the newly established Aviation Safety Investigation Board will be to prevent aircraft accidents. It will, inter alia, identify safety deficiencies and report publicly on its findings.
Although the Bill makes provision for the establishment of a number of new structures, the majority of these structures currently exist within the aviation framework, although in a different form. The ACDP will support this Bill as well as the report which recommends a comprehensive review of the government's regulatory entities. Thank you.
Chairperson, air travel has become a very common mode of travel. However, to travel by air has become very expensive and is not accessible to the people. Airport taxes increase on a weekly basis, offering no relief, and cheaper airlines now charge as much as R2 000 for a one-way ticket.
While this Bill clearly assists in making air travel safer, better managed and sustainable, the MF seeks ways of making air travel more accessible by minimising costs. The MF remembers that not too long ago, when cheaper airlines were officially introduced, their prices were very similar to bus travel and accessible. Those limits have now been exceeded. The Civil Aviation Bill, however, offers a major turnaround for this sector.
It would be wise to conduct comparative studies of civil aviation safety exercised globally to assist in making air travel even safer. Thank you.
Before I call the next speaker, could I just appeal to members to lower the level of noise. It is becoming difficult to follow the debate. We know that some parties have relaunched themselves and they are very excited, but let's keep it down.
Chairperson, the hon Minister of Transport, hon chairperson of the portfolio committee, Mr Jeremy Cronin, and all members, it is an honour for me to participate in the debate on the Civil Aviation Bill of 2008.
The debate on this Bill is intended to result in a piece of legislation to inform the regime of the civil aviation industry. In the past two months this country has seen numerous aircraft accidents and incidents. Quite a number of persons have lost their lives during these accidents. The safety and security of our lives in the aviation industry is slowly and gradually becoming suspect. Our international safety record is crumbling.
Acknowledging and responding to this turn of events, the ANC-led government proposed to introduce measures to intervene and eventually tighten the screws and close the gaps within the aviation industry. Recognising our international standing, and as a signatory to international conventions, the current regime needed a complete repeal, hence this Civil Aviation Bill of 2008.
The Civil Aviation Bill of 2008, as it is presented to the House today, seeks to establish the South African CAA and the Aviation Security Investigation board. The CAA will have a safety and security oversight function and will be led by the director, who will be responsible for the general management and administration of the authority under the direction of the board, and the safety and security of the aviation industry under the direction of the Minister.
The CAA board is responsible for the corporate governance of the authority. It is a rare situation where the director of the CAA will be reporting to two masters on different matters handled by the same entity. This anomaly arises from the dictates of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The possibility of contradictions was mitigated with the inclusion of the director as a board member. The relationship is such that he or she will report to the board on matters of safety and security in the civil aviation industry.
Given the nature and the complexity of the industry and the number of interested parties in the industry, further institutional arrangements were necessary to ensure that safety and security is not compromised. In this Bill, therefore, a further number of structures are created to deal with issues relating to safety and security. The Minister will institute a national aviation security committee whose object will be to advise the Minister with regard to aviation policy, review and make recommendations regarding the effectiveness of security measures and procedures and provide for co-ordination to ensure the proper and diligent implementation of the national aviation security programme.
The Minister will appoint one or more appeals committees consisting of three part-time members to consider and decide appeals. The Bill empowers authorised persons to effect, arrest of a person who has committed or is reasonably suspected to have committed any offence under this Act. These authorised persons are empowered to use force reasonably necessary under the circumstances to effect arrests against resistance or fleeing.
The authorised persons are, as defined in the Act, any member of the service as defined in the South African Police Service Act of 1995, any person appointed in writing by management of a designated airport with the approval of the Minister, any member of the SANDF, as defined in the Defence Act of 2002, any person designated in writing by the director of the South African CAA as an authorised person in terms of section 94(1) of this Act, or any person appointed by the Minister for purposes of this Act.
The Bill also provides for the institution of a civil aviation regulations committee to advise the Minister on proposals with regard to the introduction, amendment, or withdrawal of any regulation, the introduction, amendment, or withdrawal of any technical standard and any matter relating to civil aviation, including any such matter referred to it by the director. The committee may, subject to the approval of the director, establish such subcommittees as it may deem necessary for the performance of its functions.
Lastly, this Bill also provides for the establishment of the aviation safety investigation board to advance aviation transportation safety by conducting independent investigations, identifying safety deficiencies, making recommendations to reduce or eliminate any safety deficiencies, report publicly on its investigations and on the findings, promoting compliance with the provision of Annex 13 to the convention, investigating aircraft accidents and incidents, in compliance with the provisions of Annex 13 to the convention, and discharge all other functions and obligations in compliance with the provisions and procedures of Annex 13 to the convention.
Chairperson, this Bill seeks to give practical expression to a number of provisions of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. This Bill talks to section 12(1)(c) on freedom and security of persons and section 24(a) and (b) on an environment that everyone has a right to. It is in this spirit that the rights of citizens are protected from the ills of the aviation industry. The institutional arrangements are meant to put people first in the conduct of aviation business within and beyond the borders of the Republic.
As the ANC, the only tested and trusted organisation interested in advancing the interest of the citizens, we will not pass legislation which has not been checked against the wishes of the people.
When we say the people shall govern, we really mean what we say. The ANC, therefore, supports the Civil Aviation Bill of 2008. I thank you.
Chairperson, I would like to thank all Members of Parliament and the portfolio committee for their total support of the Civil Aviation Bill. I can only say amen and thank you very much.
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.