Thugs following people from airport a big worry
THE Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has voiced concern over the spate of serious crime incidents at OR Tambo International Airport.
“We are concerned about incidents of crime in the vicinity of the airport and against people followed to their destinations,” spokesperson Leigh Gunkel-Keuler said yesterday.
“The safety and security of passengers and visitors to this airport remains of paramount importance to the airport’s management.
“We are therefore particularly concerned by the latest occurrence of two people who were followed to their destination by armed robbers who shot and wounded them,” said Gunkel-Keuler.
She said they were of the view that there was “a high level of awareness of these matters in the SAPS, which is responsible for preventing and investigating crime in and around the airport”.
Kamal Shivanand, Acsa’s acting senior manager aviation security services, said their mandate was to control access into restricted areas and to screen passengers, hand luggage as well as luggage that goes into the hold.
“Our task is to ensure the safe and secure facilitation of passengers in the airport that relates to first-level screening of the passengers with scanning machines, baggage screening and detection.
“With the airport being a national key point, all other safety and security measures are the responsibility of the SAPS (as mandated by the National Key Points Act).
“From a road traffic law enforcement perspective, it’s the responsibility of the Ekurhuleni metro police department,” Shivanand pointed out.
Meanwhile, Uber has confirmed that although the driver affected in Sunday’s robbery in Morningside, Sandton, was an Uber driver-partner, he was not on official duty at the time.
“It was a private trip arranged between the passengers and the driver, and not an Uber trip booked via the Uber app.”
The couple from the Democratic Republic of the Congo were wounded in the robbery outside their hotel.
The latest attack comes after a series of robberies targeting mainly businesspeople and tourists.
‘SAPS, metro cops are accountable’