State to challenge Fireblade ruling

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba says the government will appeal against a judgment granting a company owned by the Oppenheimers the right to operate a private international terminal at OR Tambo International Airport.

The High Court in Pretoria declared on Friday that Gigaba granted Fireblade’s application on January 28 2016.

A few days after January 28‚ Gigaba reversed his decision.

Gigaba was then home affairs minister, and was moved to the finance portfolio when President Jacob Zuma reshuffled the Cabinet in March.

The Oppenheimer-owned Fireblade approached the high court after accusing Gigaba of reversing his approval.

Speaking on the sidelines of the CEOs breakfast briefing on Tuesday organised by the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industries, - Gigaba said the government would appeal against the high court ruling.

He said he believed “another layer” of the court would come to a different verdict. The government would definitely appeal, the minister said.

“You cannot have a country where unknown people enter and leave as they please but [are] using the same state facilities, like OR Tambo International Airport,” Gigaba said.

“You need state institutions and departments like SARS customs‚ home affairs and the police to take charge of that,” he said.

However‚ the ruling by Judge Sulet Potterill made it clear that the customs and immigration components of Fireblade’s terminal would be handled by officials of the border control operational co-ordinating committee.

This committee is an affiliated structure of the justice‚ crime prevention and security cluster and was mandated in 2005 to strategically manage the South African border environment.