From today's SA Sunday Times:
Airport fails bomb test
MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA
SA airport authorities dump private firm after security fiasco
Drama to unfold in court this week as company challenges its axing
Security guards at South Africa's busiest airport failed to detect a fake bomb with an X-ray machine just six days after two
passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center in New York.
As airports around the world launched a massive security clampdown against terror attacks, the safety of passengers and buildings at Johannesburg International Airport was in jeopardy.
Now the Airports Company of South Africa - which runs most major airports in the country - has fired the company it hired to protect passengers and aircraft around South Africa.
And it has the support of Transport Minister Dullah Omar.
One of the most serious security lapses at the airport, according to papers lodged in court, took place on September 17 - just days after South African airports were put on red alert in the wake of the US terror attacks at
Omar's request.
When security was tested at Omar's request, guards failed to identify a "test bomb" put through an X-ray machine.
A test bomb kit is a fake bomb that is used to test the efficiency of X-ray machines at airports.
The same day, no searches were conducted on vehicles entering and leaving a restricted area, it is claimed in court papers.
A Department of Transport spokesman, Mike Mabasa, said on Friday: "We fully support all the moves being taken by [the Airports Company], including cancelling or terminating the contract they have with the security company.
"As the minister has said before, safety comes first. We cannot compromise the safety of our passengers, other airlines or the airport buildings at any expense."
More than five million people board flights and more than 76 000 aircraft land at the airport each year.
The axed company, Khuselani Security and Risk Management, was awarded a R99-million three-year contract in June last year to guard 10 major airports.
It has now refused to accept that it has been fired.
Tomorrow it will take the Airports Company to the Johannesburg High Court in an attempt to stop it terminating the contract on Friday.
Noel Ngwenya, Khuselani's chief executive, said: "We are being ambushed. It's daylight robbery.
"The whole thing is a joke. [The Airports Company] is trying to replace us with another company."
The Airports Company sent Khuselani 15 letters of complaint over the past three months detailing security problems at Johannesburg International. In these letters, which have been lodged in court, Khuselani was told that it had breached its contract and was given seven days to rectify each of the problems.
The complaints in the letters include allegations that:
- A gunshot went off while one of Khuselani's guards was doing a "safety drill" in August. A stray bullet penetrated the floor;
- During an inspection on September 4, a guard was found asleep at the Jet Centre aircraft gate. His head was covered with a balaclava;
- On September 11, the day of the US attacks, two guards were found at Customs without licences for their guns;
- On September 15, a security officer deserted his post for 40 minutes after booking out to go to the toilet;
- On September 21 at Terminal 6, a security officer failed to search 30 bags;
- On September 23 at Terminal 3, two guards failed to search people because they were reading newspapers; and
- On the same day in Customs, two guards allowed 10 bags to pass by without searching them.
Some of the incidents were recorded on closed-circuit TV.
In a letter responding to the Airports Company's complaint about the fake
bomb not being detected, Khuselani said "the test bomb issue has been addressed" and a refresher course for staff had been scheduled for October.
Khuselani also said it had solved the problems concerning the searching of vehicles. Disciplinary action had been taken against staff.
Nevertheless, the Airports Company terminated the contract.
An Airports Company spokesman, Charmaine Lodewyk, said the company had been summonsed to appear in court tomorrow in connection with the dispute. She would not answer questions "as the matter is sub judice".