The Airports Company is reeling from several security-related controversies
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The chair of the Airports Company of South Africa, prominent businessman Mashudu Ramano, was briefly held this week for questioning on suspicion of having fake citizenship documents.
His arrest is the latest in a series of debilitating events to strike the South African airports holding company and its ability to ensure the safety of passengers. Last week the Airports Company axed a Kempton Park security firm, Khuselani Security, because of its allegedly slack performance, prompting a hostile legal battle between the two companies.Khuselani was responsible for security at 10 of South Africa’s major airports, run by the Airports Company.
Senior government sources sympathetic to Ramano claim he was set up, while Ramano himself says he has been “asking himself questions” about what prompted the police raid. Ramano who has crossed swords with Khuselani says he has also experienced death threats and has fled his home after four gunmen stormed his house and fired 10 shots.
Ramano says that after his arrest early on Thursday he was taken to the home affairs department offices for questioning. Ramano says he was grilled because his surname on his ID has been misspelled. It stated “Ramango” instead of “Ramano”.
“For my government, which I serve so well, to take me for questioning for an ID error made by the apartheid regime is unbelievable,” he said. Ramano said the police were following him the day before his arrest.
“When I knocked off from work on Wednesday, I went straight to a hotel as I cannot go home. The police were apparently following me to the hotel and they came to arrest me at the hotel in the morning,” the airports chief said.
“I do not understand why the police did not have time to protect me when those gunmen attacked my home but they have time to follow me around and question me,” he said adding that he has also received calls from strange people masquerading as phone technicians.
“Other people have phoned in my house claiming to be from cosmetic companies, asking how many children I have etc,” he said.
Khuselani Security refuses to accept the Airports Company’s decision to terminate its R99-million contract and is challenging the matter in court. The Airports Company has provided details in court how Khuselani failed a dummy bomb test and how its employees were caught sleeping on the job. However, Khuselani claims that the charges against it were orchestrated to justify its expulsion.
Khuselani says five terminals were tested, but that it slipped up in only one, and had instituted disciplinary action against the negligent employees involved.
Airport security has confirmed, however, that these allegedly negligent security personnel are still working at the airport under new interim management.
Khuselani claim that its axing by the Airports Company was a smokescreen to cover widespread corruption involving officials of the Airports Company.
The security firm also claims that the Airports Company wants to employ a company linked to one of its top officials. Ramano denies this. He says the decision to oust Khuselani was because it was “not giving it value for its money”.
On Thursday, worried senior government officials said the showdown between Khuselani and the Airports Company has threatened to jeopardise security and safety at South Africa’s airports.
Ramano said: “It is very sad that we cannot enforce security standards at the airports. When we try to do so you have all these people going up in arms”.
The senior government officials also claimed that the shock arrest of Ramano was related to the Airport Company’s security contract debacle with Khuselani.
The officials claim Ramano has been warned by other top government officials those not in the Ramano camp not to “mess around” with Khuselani and the arrest is seen as retaliation.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the man in charge of security at South Africa’s major international airports has allegedly misrepresented himself as a “detective sergeant” for the border police to procure a lie detector from the United States.
Paul O’Sullivan, the head of security at the Airports Company, bought a lie detector using a credit card, claiming the R85 000 device was for the border police.
Border police at Johannesburg International airport denied this and said they had nothing do with the device. Superintendant Leon Engelbrecht, a police spokesperson, said it is “unacceptable for a police reservist to go the US and buy a lie detector on behalf of the border police without authority. If that is the case we are going to investigate him.”
A border police representative at Johannesburg International airport said O’Sullivan was not a “detective sergeant”, as he purported. O’Sullivan is also facing a charge of assault from an unidentified man, who he allegedly manhandled at Johannesburg International airport.
Police representatives say they are investigating a charge of assault against O’Sullivan, but said the complainant has since failed to come forward. O’Sullivan could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
The Airports Company said the lie detector was not bought for its use eiher.