Editorial

This month’s editorial is perhaps the most difficult that I have written in the past 19 years. Just as South African aviation started emerging out of the decade in which past president Zuma and his cronies, which includes several of the present ANC politicians in today’s Cabinet, almost destroyed the economy of our country, now we are faced with another world crisis.

Many of us had great expectations of the ‘back to business’ thinking of Ramaphosa, but sadly we have been let down again since institutional corruption is so deeply entrenched within government agencies including the SACAA, where many unresolved issues continue to plague the aviation industry negatively at every level.

Considering President Ramaphosa’s ‘State of the Nation disaster proclamation’ on Sunday night 15 March, many of the scheduled aviation events in South Africa have been either cancelled altogether or will be scheduled for a later date when the COVID 19 crisis has passed. However, what do we realistically expect? Although I applaud the government for taking decisive action in a move to limit person to person transmission of this virus, this situation will have far reaching effects on the aviation industry. How does any aviation business expect to survive given the many curved balls that are continuously thrown at it?

As an aviation publication, African Pilot is committed to report on aviation events, but when these events are cancelled, what is there to feature? Of course, this is not only a problem for aviation, but also affects the many media organisations that feature a host of sporting and recreational events in our country and indeed the world! In view of this dire situation, as editor of African Pilot I will draw on the many reserve features that I have saved for a situation such as this one to publish in future magazines. Fortunately, having travelled to AirVenture, Oshkosh for the past 19 years, I have many feature articles in reserve that I can present in future editions.

When are we going to come out of this negativity? I urge everyone to take specific precautions as outlined by every media organisation and not to dismiss this COVID 19 as simply media hype. The situation is serious and if we are to get back to normality as soon as possible, every South African citizen must take preventative measures seriously. At African Pilot we have implemented measures to limit any exposure to COVID 19 as far as possible and I urge every business to do the same. African Pilot will attempt to keep all our readers informed about the changes and new dates of aviation events as soon as the information comes to hand.

Right now, being in the air is possibly safer than being on the ground! Let us keep it that way.

Please keep warm as winter approaches.

Yours sincerely. Athol.