The Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) statement that it has successfully recorded a R400 million profit in the 2023/24 financial period has been disputed. The state-owned entity’s CEO Mpumi Mpofu revealed this during a media briefing at the OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park on Tuesday.
“ACSA is steadily recovering from the years of COVID in terms of overall performance. This is the year in which we declared a profit.Despite a number of issues that marred ACSA, more specifically, the recent jet fuel shortage, and power disruptions ACSA recorded a R400 million profit in the 23/24 financial period the first post COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mpofu.
The statement was however dismissed by an independent pilot and aviation expert Phuthego Mojapelo who isn’t convinced that ACSA was able to achieve all this amid challenges facing it.
“ACSA is not anywhere close to where it claims to be.But let me just clarify two things that I think we shouldn’t celebrate when some of these things come out, you see ACSA even today is still going through some challenges, there’s still problems. If you go to George just yesterday, even today, it’s still not-operational (the airport is under ACSA control and operation) now how do you then go out to the media and say despite all the challenges we had, we managed to make money and recovered post COVID-19 pandemic. It’s wrong,” asked Mojapelo.
The entity there weren’t significant security incidents outside of a jet fuel supply issue and power interruptions, but Mojapelo negated the claims citing an incident that happened in his presence at an airport when flying to the US.
“Firstly, let me deal with the kind of security companies that they have been appointing (at the airports in the country) without proper aviation accreditation and F SEC clearance to work at the airports as per the aviation regulations.But some of those companies don’t have that competency, even though on paper it could be that they have it,” remarked Mojapele.
Mpofu admitted that ACSA was battling infrastructure miseries, something they are allegedly dealing with, with a major capital programme over the next five years.She said that the recent shortage of a jet fuel valve at OR Tambo International Airport and cable issues at Cape Town International Airport were clear signs of infrastructure deterioration.
