‘Accused’ MEC bids to save Polokwane airport

Limpopo MEC for transport and community safety Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya is on a mission to revive the Polokwane International Airport.

The airport, according to the department, contributed immensely to the economic spin-offs in the province through agriculture, mining and tourism sectors.

Last week, Lerule-Ramakhanya became a “punching bag” of opposition parties, which blamed her for the total collapse of services at the airport.

ALSO READ: Opposition parties finger MEC over Polokwane airport mess

The parties accused the MEC of failing to play her oversight role, which they claimed had led to the airport’s closure.

The airport was closed down after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) downgraded it from category seven to category two.

The airport had no active board of directors, no management and no funds.

It had too often been bailed out by the provincial government, while irregular expenditure milked the entity of millions of rand. But because it was seen by many as an essential tool for the “fruit basket” of the country and a tourism destination of choice, the MEC had decided to heed the call and revive the airport.

She introduced a team of administrators from her department to the Gateway Airport Authority Limited (Gaal) management team to help bring it back from the ashes.

The MEC said the supplementary team comprised middle and senior management staff employed in the human resources, anti-fraud and risk, internal control and compliance, financial accounting and supply chain management fields.

She indicated the administration was expected to understand projects at the airport for effective oversight.

“Those dispatched to the airport have specialised skills to enable credible evaluations and opinion reports, consultations and marketing skills and have extensive research skills to avoid applying common sense on technical issues,” she said.

She reminded the collective to keep in mind the airport had contributed positively to the economic cluster and that they must do diligent work to bring the airport to its former glory.

“We must always remember that we are accountable to the province, the country and the community at large,” she said.

“Therefore, professionalism should be practiced as we move for the revival of the Gaal and work against human error delays.

“No more excuses! Let’s get to work,” Lerule-Ramakhanya said.

She was hopeful that the team would work round the clock to ensure that normalcy was restored and commercial activities could be resumed.

Speaking to The Citizen in Tzaneen last weekend, Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha said more work would still need to be done in order to get the airport out of the woods.

“We may need to work as a collective to ensure both the management and Gaal work from the same page. We have lost one of the biggest economic contributors in the airport. But through teamwork, we will soon be back on our feet,” said Mathabatha.

news@citizen.co.za.