/ 27 March 2006

Acsa quiet on security following currency theft

Officials of the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) were mum on Monday morning on security steps to be taken after this weekend’s heist at Johannesburg International Airport.

”We are still reviewing the incident,” said spokesperson Solomon Makgale.

”If we have any new information to share with the media, we will do so.”

SA Airways (SAA) spokesperson Jacqui O’Sullivan said no internal probe at the airline was underway.

”We are co-operating with the police in their investigation. We are still trying to establish how this could have happened.”

At 10.30am on Saturday two men armed with AK-47 assault rifles went to an SAA aircraft, held up guards and police and helped themselves to bags of currency which had been flown in from Britain.

At the same time, the rest of the gang was holding up guards at one of the gates. All of the men fled, no shots were fired and nobody was injured.

Police said they were investigating whether the theft was an inside job.

”We have no leads nor have arrests been made in this matter. I will go there again [Monday] today in an attempt to figure out what happened,” said senior superintendent Vish Naidoo. — Sapa