FACE TO FACE DIRECTOR OF THE CAA: MS POPPY KHOZA

Ms Poppy Khoza has been the Director of the CAA for more almost 10 years something of a record. She must be doing something right to have lasted so long in such a difficult job. Guy Leitch caught up with her.

- Guy Leitch

GL: I have been very critical recently about the CAA and particularly the handling of the Comair grounding. One of the criticisms I had of the grounding was that you were not leading from the front. That is, you were not handling the media announcements, but rather leaving it to your senior managers. Grounding an airline is an extremely serious action and so would it not have been reasonable for you to have been personally making the announcements as the Director of the CAA (DCA)?

PK: The reason is simple: The power to ground an aircraft or suspend an airline is given to the authorised officer in terms of the Civil Aviation Act read with the associated regulations. A person who feels aggrieved by a decision of the inspector or authorised officer has a right to appeal to me. Until the suspension or grounding is appealed against, it would be premature, irregular and improper for me as the Director to be involved, comment or handle media queries. It is for this reason, that the Director should not only be seen, but should actually be impartial and stay out of announcements and involvement with the airline and media.

GL: Have you ever overruled one of your inspectors?

PK: Yes, there are many times when I have overruled inspectors or authorised officer decisions because I have an opportunity to evaluate representations and evidence from both sides.

GL: You have done very well with your ICAO audits, achieving a world class 87%. However, I am reliably told that in November an FAA inspection uncovered a number of findings and that the FAA will be back in May to review progress on these findings. Are you concerned that the FAA may downgrade the CAA from its current A1 status?