BLF activists booted out of Parliament

CHAOS erupted at the parliamentary home affairs portfolio committee meeting when Black First Land First activists were booted out for disrupting the meeting yesterday.

This happened when billionaire businessman Nicky Oppenheimer and his Fireblade Aviation directors, including his son Jonathan and former Northern Cape premier Manne Dipico, made a presentation about their company’s operations at OR Tambo International Airport.

The drama started when BLF leader Andile Mngxitama shouted “Shut down Fireblade”.

Other BLF activists charged forward and attempted to manhandle Nicky and Jonathan, prompting parliamentarians to restrain the group.

Committee chairperson Hlomane Chauke called for “bouncers” to remove the BLF activists. This did not stop Mngxitama from shouting that the Oppenheimers were “criminals”, and he warned Dipico not to be a “house negro”.

Calm returned only when parliamentary protection officers evicted the BLF activists.

Chauke condemned the protest action by Mngxitama and his group.

“The danger of this protest is when you threaten people; that becomes a problem,” he said.

“We don’t want to turn Parliament into a state of anarchy. People have a right to protest but not to the extent that they threaten people,” Chauke said.

The DA’s Haniff Hoosen said the BLF’s conduct should not be treated as simply a once-off incident.

“This matter must be reported to the Speaker and appropriate action taken,” Hoosen said.

During their presentation to the committee, the Oppenheimer family dismissed reports that their private terminal was the only privately owned facility at a South African airport.

“These comments are simply not true. In addition to Fireblade, other private facilities exist in the country, such as Lanseria and Mpumalanga International Airport, that supply similar services,” Nicky Oppenheimer said.

His sentiments were echoed by Jonathan, who stated that the facility was not for the family’s exclusive use.

“Since inception, including domestic and international operations, we have had some

13 884 movements. The vast majority of those have been domestic movements and the family itself has been responsible for 5% of those movements, so by no means an exclusive use for the family,” Jonathan said.

Nicky Oppenheimer said he and his son had invested R150 million in the facility after exploring their longheld ambitions to invest in a “worldclass gateway into South Africa” for non-scheduled flights.

“It soon became apparent that OR Tambo International Airport, unlike most major airports in the world, did not have a facility dedicated to domestic and international nonscheduled aircraft movement,” he said.

Oppenheimer also said discussions were started with many state entities, which were supportive of their proposal, and a lease was signed with Denel.

In 2016, final approval was outstanding from Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, despite Gigaba telling them in a meeting that he had done so.

Oppenheimer also said that after multiple engagements with the department and Gigaba, Fireblade was left with no choice but to seek court relief, and the Pretoria High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in their favour.

“All found that the minister granted permission to Fireblade, and attempts to argue otherwise were ill-founded,” he added.

Oppenheimer also said Gigaba had taken the matter to the Constitutional Court, but he was no longer challenging the court finding that he granted permission.

|