SOUTH AFRICA EXCELS WITH ICAO SAFETY INDEX OF +1

On Tuesday 8 November I attended the speech by the minister of Transport held at the SACAA's offices in Midrand. Apart from being more than one hour late, the Minister delivered an excellent address from prepared notes about South Africa's excellent aviation safety record. Of course, this applies to airlines in this country and not General Aviation, where there has not been any fatal accident for the past 30 years.

- ATHOL FRANZ

Minister Fikile Mbalula said "ICAO introduced a safety Lindex as an indicator of a M State's safety oversight capabilities. This metric looks at the oversight capabilities of each State against the traffic volumes and concentrates on the operations, air navigation and support functions of a State's aviation system. In this regard, ICAO has rated South Africa with a safety index of +1, this being the highest positive rating any State can achieve. The last time South Africa was audited by ICAO on safety was in 2017 and the State achieved a safety compliance rating of 87.39% against a global average of 69,32%. South Africa is expecting to increase this current safety rating of 87,39% in March / April 2023 because the State has been included in ICAO's next audit cycle."

Mbalula continues: "Aviation is one of the transport modes that are critical to the socioeconomic development of our country and her citizens. When government established the civil aviation national regulator, the primary goal was to establish an autonomous body that will ensure the safety and security of our skies and create an environment that is conducive for the industry to grow and thrive in the most cost-effective way.

The SACAA, is therefore responsible for ensuring that our national civil aviation safety and security systems are comparable or exceed the standards of first world countries.