A new notice under the Civil Aviation Act has introduced stricter compliance requirements for aircraft operators transporting 20 or more passengers to South Africa, as part of efforts to strengthen national security.
The notice, which was recently published in the Government Gazette by the transport department, follows an inter-departmental security assessment of the threat to civil aviation and national security posed by non-scheduled international charter flights.
The assessment noted the inadequate implementation of immigration regulations for advanced passenger processing.
With effect from December 11, any aircraft operator providing unscheduled services and intending to transport 20 or more passengers to South Africa is required to submit passenger and crew manifests to immigration authorities at least 72 hours before the planned flight departure.
Operators must also insert a unique passenger and crew manifest clearance number where provided into the applicable flight plan and submit that plan to the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS).
ATNS may refuse to allow a flight to enter South African airspace or disembark passengers at a local airport if the required clearance number has not been included.
In addition, the notice obliges operators to conduct various cross-checks and empowers authorities to request passenger manifests even when fewer than 20 passengers are being transported.
Authorities are also granted the power to revoke, suspend or cancel authorisation for flights to, within, or from South Africa where necessary.
The move follows a controversial incident in November last year in which 153 Palestinians were kept aboard a chartered aircraft for 12 hours by South African border police after arriving without Israeli departure stamps in their passports.
The passengers were eventually allowed to disembark after the home affairs ministry accepted a guarantee from humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers to provide accommodation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa later said South Africa would investigate the matter but acknowledged that the group had been admitted “out of compassion”.
“These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” Ramaphosa said at the time.
According to the department of home affairs, 130 of the passengers entered South Africa while 23 continued onward to other destinations. The incident was later revealed not to be isolated.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said a separate charter flight carrying 176 Palestinians had landed in Johannesburg on October 28 with some passengers then departing for other countries.
The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said both groups’ travel “was arranged by an unregistered and misleading organisation that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner”.
Speaking at a media briefing in November on South Africa’s readiness to host the G20 leaders’ summit, international relations and co-operation minister Ronald Lamola suggested the incident formed part of a broader international operation.
“It does look like it represents a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world and it’s a clearly orchestrated operation because they are not only being sent to South Africa, there are other countries to which such flights have been sent,” said Lamola.
The transport department warned that failure to comply with the new notice would result in flights being denied entry into South African airspace or prevent passengers from disembarking at local airports.
Non-compliant operators may also face penalties under Government Gazette Notice 37679 of 2014, read with section 332 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, as well as administrative penalties under the Civil Aviation Act.
Authorities may further revoke, suspend or cancel an operator’s authorisation to operate flights to, within, or from South Africa.
The department said the notice would remain in force until formally withdrawn through a subsequent notice in the Government Gazette.
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