The Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, has put the CEO of the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS), Nosipho Mdawe, on ice.
Mdawe was suspended over performance challenges and lack of direction ATNS was taking when it comes to its business, as a state-owned entity that oversees and manages air traffic management services of the South African skies.
Creecy issued a ministerial order to the board of ATNS, which is chaired by the popular lawyer Zola Majavu. The order was to suspend Mdawe with immediate effect.
Independent law firm roped in
The minister also instructed the board of ATNS to appoint an independent law firm to investigate Mdawe’s conduct concerning the fulfilment of her duties and responsibilities as a CEO of the company.
ATNS CFO Matome Moholola was appointed as an acting CEO. And Mdawe remained on suspension pending the finalisation of the investigation and its outcomes.
The suspension comes after the progress report on the functions of the ATNS. It painted a grim picture on the operations of the company towards managing navigation systems and air traffic management of the country’s skies.
“As the shareholder minister of the ATNS, I appointed a committee of experts to investigate the state of affairs of the ATNS. As well as the status of air traffic navigation services in South Africa.
Several grave and material issues within the ATNS
“The experts’ findings, which have been shared with the ATNS board of directors, reveal several grave and material issues within the ATNS and the country’s air traffic navigation services.” said Creecy.
She pointed out that since the commencement of investigations, a number of other urgent interventions have been identified as critical for ATNS’s continued operations and “we are beginning to notice progress”.
“I consider this ministerial order necessary to facilitate the discharge of South Africa’s international obligations under the Convention on International Civil Aviation (“Chicago Convention”). In terms of Section 10(4) of the Act, the ATNS, represented by the board of directors, shall take all necessary steps to give effect to this order.”
Some of the factors that led to Mdawe’s suspension were necessitated by challenges regarding the ongoing flight delays at various airports in the country.
Last August, Creecy had an urgent meeting with all transport aviation entities. These included ATNS, Airports Company of SA (ACSA), as well as SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).
Concerns around safety
In the meeting, Creecy emphasised the need for the ATNS to get to the root cause of this problem. She also emphasised that it was critical that no corners must be cut in relation to safety.
It was also agreed that ATNS should develop a comprehensive plan for consideration and approval by the Creecy. This as a matter of urgency.
It was stated that the plan should be costed with realistic timeframes. Its technical capacity required to review all flight instrument procedures was to also be indicated.
At that time, ATNS was instructed to submit the plan in two weeks from the date of the meeting.
Once an acceptable plan was in place, it would have been shared with the aviation industry and the nation.
Flight delays
Based on the crisis, Creecy also had to apologise to the commuters for the ongoing flight delays. She gave assurance that ATNS was working on a plan to solve the root cause of this problem without compromising safety.
Last September, Creecy convened a meeting with the aviation industry ATNS over related issues. She wanted them to share their comprehensive turnaround plan to address the ongoing flight delays at various airports in the country.
The industry was taken through the comprehensive Flight Procedure Plan per airport. This included the categories of instrument flight procedures impacted, as well as their status. And all in terms of those already approved and those pending approval by SACAA.
ATNS was required to present to the aviation industry and the minister on progress registered. This pertained to the implementation of the plan, and presented every two weeks.
Committee of aviation experts
The minister soon realised that there were deeper problems for ATNS to come up with a turnaround plan. She appointed a committee of aviation experts following months of working with the ATNS and the aviation industry on these issues. Primarily to deal with the submission of revised flight procedures to SACCA to address flight delays at various airports.
This process has seen numerous flight procedures returned to the ATNS for improvement. And it has continued to cause costly delays to airlines and significant inconvenience to passengers. This also resulted in the company losing part of its technical capacity due to resignation of air traffic controllers.
The mandate of the committee was therefore to investigate the root causes of all these problems. Its specific focus was on operations, delays in capital spending on infrastructure and capacity and training programmes.
All the challenges that ATNS had failed to address resulted in Creecy placing Mdawe on suspension.
Sexual harassment allegations
ATNS spokesperson, Percy Morokane, referred Sunday World to the department. Mdawe did not respond to questions sent to her.
In the meantime, ATNS is still conducting investigations regarding sexual harassment allegations. These were levelled against the head of air traffic control, Simon Zwane. He was suspended after we published his story three weeks ago. A junior female employee had laid a complaint about him.
