Fireblade ruling at airport seen as ‘privatisation’

A LANDMARK ruling in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, allowing the Oppenheimer family to operate customs and immigration services at OR Tambo International Airport, was yesterday described as the privatisation of government’s functions.

This was the view of Professor Loren Landau, of the African Centre for Migration and Society, at Wits University.

Landau made the comment after Judge Sulete Potterill ruled that former minister of home affairs and now Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba had indeed given the Oppenheimers, through their company Fireblade, permission to run customs and immigration services at OR Tambo International Airport.

The Oppenheimers lodged a court application after Gigaba denied that he had given them permission in January 2016 to go ahead with their plans.

They argued that Gigaba went back on his word after Denel suddenly cited security concerns over the proposed terminal.

They argued that the Guptas were behind the backtracking. Gigaba and Denel denied the allegations against them.

But Judge Potterill ruled in favour of the family, saying Gigaba’s approval was “of force and effect and may not be revoked without due cause”.

“This has been the argument of corporate South Africa to put pressure on government to facilitate the movement of highly skilled people to South Africa. In reality, it is the privatisation of the state function,” Landau said.

He made an example about the landing of hundreds of people at Waterkloof Air Base to attend the Guptas wedding at Sun City in 2013 without undergoing thorough security checks by local immigration officers.

“To allow a family to run customs and immigration services suggest that the state was giving some of its responsibilities to private institutions,” Landau said.

Home Affairs reacted to the ruling, saying they “were studying the contents of the judgment and will make an announcement in due course”.

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, said his party condemned the exclusive access granted to the Oppenheimer family to OR Tambo Airport.

“We condemn this as a sign that this family seeks to use its financial power to continue enjoying the apartheid set-up of exclusive access and exit points for Europeans only. The VVIP will, by and large, be used by Europeans to the exclusion and marginalisation of the majority of non-Europeans as it will be based on financial muscle.”