Fireblade: Gigaba in the fray

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has re-entered a legal battle between the Department of Home Affairs and Oppenheimer aviation company Fireblade over a rejected application for customs and immigration services at its OR Tambo terminal.

Fireblade is seeking to review a decision by then home affairs minister Gigaba in November, denying customs and immigration services at its “seven-star” terminal at OR Tambo — a decision the company maintained was taken after pressure was exerted by the Gupta family.

Fireblade wants on-site immigration and customs services at its terminal.

It blames the Gupta family for several “flip flops” in support from both Denel, which is the lessor, and the department.

Fireblade maintains the Guptas initially sought to press the company into including a black empowerment partner. Once this failed, it used its influence on the lessor to press Gigaba to deny the application.

At the centre of the dispute is whether the terminal is a port of entry, a status held by ports,

airports and border crossings. Fireblade, however, has not requested this status.

Gigaba has now gone into more detail to explain his reasoning, maintaining the application is “in substance” one for a port of entry.

When Fireblade sought the review, Gigaba was then the home affairs minister. He was reshuffled to the finance portfolio at the end of March and replaced by Hlengiwe Mkhize.

In April, Gigaba, after consultation with Mkhize, filed an affidavit again, strongly denying he ever met any member of the Gupta family to discuss Fireblade’s application.

In a replying affidavit filed on May 11, Fireblade argues the department has failed to tackle “curious terminology” used in the department’s replying affidavit filed in February.

In the February affidavit, the department centred its decision to reject Fireblade’s application on the basis that it could not approve a port of entry. Approval of the terminal as a new port of entry would be tantamount to using public resources for private purposes, sentiments again expressed by Gigaba in the April affidavit.

Fireblade contends it had clearly requested extended customs services and the department “misconstrued” the issue.

In a replying affidavit filed in the High Court in Pretoria on May 11 Fireblade director Robbie Irons maintains the department failed to address concerns over the alleged influence of the Gupta family on departmental decisions. The affidavit accuses him of “unconvincing denials” and a seeming lack of interest in the manner in which Denel consistently changed its mind.

Denel has denied this.