The DA notes the Civil Aviation Amendment Act finally coming into effect. Although it has taken four years, it is finally a step in the right direction.
The DA has always believed that aviation accident investigations should be independent, transparent and accountable. When the Bill was passed in 2022, we raised concerns that the Bill had not gone far enough to achieve this. SACAA’s own calibration aircraft fatal crash later showed why independence matters as the regulator could not credibly investigate itself leading to the handover of the investigation to Ethiopian authorities.
There is some real progress that should be acknowledged. Incident and accident investigations will now have a measure of operational independence in law. The Aviation Safety Investigation Board will be appointed with public participation, as well as input from aviation experts and a role for Parliament. Operators will now be able to appeal the to the Board’s findings. And airlines must now actively put their security programmes into practice.
While there is progress, there is still more that needs to be achieve in terms of air investigation proceedings. The DA will keep calling for fully independent investigations that report to Parliament and are free of ministerial performance agreements, clear deadlines for crash and incident reports, and fines scaled to company turnover.