National Government has over the last ten or more years reduced as direct involvement in airports and partly also in civil aviation. State airports and airspace control, which were Department of Transport responsibilities, were in 1993 transferred to ACSA (Airports Company of South Africa Limited) and ATNS (Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company Limited) respectively. In 1998 many of the other civil aviation responsibilities were transferred to the Civil Aviation Authority, an agency on an arms-length from government. The National Department of Transport (NDoT) is currently responsible for matters such as national policy, strategy and legislation; for the establishment and enforcement of norms and standards for aspects such as safety regulation, aviation security and licensing, and environmental control; the co-ordination of relations with foreign countries and their airlines; and the economic regulation of ACSA [1].

Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (MDPWRT) as the provincial body responsible for all transport related policy, strategy, planning and legislation requires relevant and current transport information to make informed decisions. As a result the following air freight research objectives were set out to acquire the necessary information for this purpose.

• Airfields Infrastructure and Operations
• Current Air Freight Volumes
• Possible linkage of Air Freight with Road and Rail based freight operations
• Future investment and planning

This section covers air transport facilities within the province where significant freight is being ferried regularly. A map showing major air freight destinations in South Africa is shown in figure 1 and it can be seen that there are two airfields within the province of Mpumalanga were there is significant airline activities.



Figure 1: Major air freight destination in South Africa [source: www.flysaa.com/saa_cargo].

The airfields at Mala Mala and the Kruger Mpumalanga International airport contribute significantly toward aviation activities but the study was not limited to these airfields only. One of the things that came out of this study is that there are quite a number of privately owned airfields which are used to ferry equipment in or out (for mining or power generation purposes) but the information is kept as company confidential.

The Role Of Airports And Airlines according to the South African Civil Aviation Authority:

The Airports and Airlines division is mandated to promote, regulate and enforce best practice security measures and policies as highlighted in Annex 17 of ICAO. The key focus of Airports and Airlines division is the ensuring of aviation industry compliance with National Aviation Security Programme (NASP).

The roles of this division are:

• Determine/identify system inadequacies/weaknesses of airlines and airports to prevent acts of unlawful interference,
• Evaluate the robustness of the security of the airlines and airports,
• Assess potential threats to airlines, airports and airspace,
• Recommend security measures to counter actual or perceived threats, and
• To assist each airline and airport to develop their security programme that must be aligned to the needs of CAA, NASP, and ICAO,
• Conduct investigations in cases of security related incidents or accidents,
• Security liaison with other state organs,
• Assist the airlines and airports with security related enquiries and ensure quality control,
• Determine deficiencies in security and suggest new requirements, and
• Analyse current threats and recommend revisions to the NASP if necessary.