The state-owned company responsible for the control of air traffic, the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), allegedly hid an explosive complaint detailing sexual harassment and racism that was sent to its top executives and the board in 2017.
The memorandum, written by an employee who left ATNS in 2021 after allegedly being pushed out through frustrations and constant threats, paints a grim picture of how sexual harassment and racism are rife within the organisation, which is based in Bruma in the east of Johannesburg.
Sunday World reported about another incident in February, where a female employee filed a case of sexual harassment by the company’s senior manager in air traffic management,
Simon Zwane.
Zwane was sent packing two weeks ago by ATNS after his case was investigated.
This week, Sunday World saw a memorandum that was filed to the company’s human resource department by the complainant, who had been with ATNS for 17 years, where she revealed how she was allegedly sexually harassed and subjected to racism.
The complainant stated that she was not the only person who felt the wrath of sexual harassment and racism, citing that many black women were not spared at all from the sufferings.
In the complaint, the complainant, whose identity is known to Sunday World but cannot be named to protect her, painted an explicit picture of the challenges they have been
subjected to by white old racist men and horny black senior managers within the company.
She pleaded for justice and for all the issues she raised to be investigated.
However, instead of attending to her complaint, ATNS allegedly decided to hide the memorandum that implicated the current CEO, Josiah Manyakoana, Jeoffrey Matshoba, who is the executive responsible for air traffic management and communication, navigation and surveillance as well as ATNS’ aeronautical information services manager Francois Coetzee.
The complainant had joined ATNS as a student in pursuit of becoming one of the few black air traffic control officers in the country, however, she said since she was admitted to the Aviation Traffic Academy (ATA), which is the air traffic school owned by ATNS, in 2007, she experienced hell from the beginning.
“From the onset at ATA, the environment that I found myself in could be characterised as racist, both at a theoretical and practical level.
“It was hard, constantly being reminded that you are black and not made out to be an air
traffic controller by some of the instructors at the ATA, but we persevered.
“The air traffic control profession had previously been preserved for white males in South Africa, and even eleven years after liberation, ATNS and specifically ATA were grappling with transformation, especially in technical areas such as air traffic control,” said the
complainant.
She said that her group of trainees went through the ATA training pipeline and that they were confronted by white instructors with racist attitudes who did not like black people at all, where, she claimed, there were racial remarks passed to them, and also told that they were not capable of becoming air traffic control officers.
She also pointed out that at one time black students were removed from training positions and that only white students were left untouched as they continued with training.
The complainant said that as black students, they raised objections but received no help.
She said that they were told by their white instructors that only preferential treatment would be given to the white students, and as blacks they would follow, claiming that the management of the academy and ATNS would tell them that their decision was final.
The woman also made claims that Manyakoana and Matshoba had made sexual
advances towards her.
She said Matshoba would make sexual connotation remarks about her breasts, make phone calls in which he made sexually explicit remarks and also send her sexually explicit text messages.
“He would send me messages of an intimate and sexual nature about my physical attributes on the phone.
“He made overtures, inviting me to lunch. During lunches, he would comment about my body, expressing a desire to become intimate, asking to be hugged and kissed,” she said.
She said that she reported Matshoba to human resources boss Dumisani Baai.
She also accused Manyakoana, who was the senior manager then, of blocking her prospects of becoming an air traffic service assistant, as she claimed that he also openly made sexual advances towards her.
She asked the company to intervene in her predicament, however, no action was taken.
