SACAA Annual Report 2022_23

PART A I General Information

A SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC ENTITY The revenue model to fund the Authority is based on the user-pays principle, and this is achieved through the Passenger Safety Charge, the fuel levy, and the administrative charges for its financial sustainability. When COVID-19 struck, similar to the experience of the entire global aviation industry, the sudden lack of flights and paying passengers resulted in most of the aviation industry and entities’ revenue drying up. Although the SACAA was prepared and was able to sustain itself for almost a year having regard to the importance of the Regulator, the Executive Authority stepped in and assisted the Regulator to continue delivering on its mandate, considering it was also declared as an essential service. To the credit of the SACAA, this state-owned entity has been a model organisation in terms of remaining viable, and more importantly, the SACAA has continued to carry out its statutory mandate with great aplomb, enforcing compliance with the governance prescripts, hence the entity has recorded another clean audit with the Auditor General of South Africa. I am encouraged by the continued efforts of the entity to uphold the principles of clean governance, as demonstrated by the tenth clean audit outcome from the AGSA’s year-end audit. Picking up from the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, I am in support of the entity’s revision of its cash reserve policy, where they have increased their provision to 12 months from six months. A SAFER CIVIL AVIATION INDUSTRY The primary mandate of the SACAA is regulating aviation safety and security, and this mandate has been extended to include the impact of aviation activities on the environment. Regarding aviation safety, I welcome the results, which still confirm that South Africa has maintained a zero fatal accident rate in the airline scheduled sector for more than 36 years. It is even more pleasing that a decrease in the

number of accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities in the general aviation sector has been recorded. This downward trend is encouraged and hopefully will continue until we can boldly claim that we have zero fatalities in this sector of the industry as well. A VIEW TO A UNIFIED AIR TRANSPORT MARKET FOR AFRICA In terms of the continent of Africa, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) agreement, a project of the African Union Agenda 2063, is intended to create a single, unified air transport market in Africa. The opening up of African skies is expected to lower air passenger fares and ultimately greatly benefit the socio-economic status within the continent. On 14 November 2022, the SAATM Pilot Implementation Project (PIP) was launched, and 17 countries, including South Africa, participated. In aiding the progress of this very important initiative, we are looking up to the civil aviation Regulator to do all within its power to contribute towards making this initiative a reality, in line with its mandate. South Africa’s re-election into the ICAO General Council On 4 October 2022, the 41st Session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) completed the election of its new Council, which is the governing body in Montréal, Canada, and South Africa was re-elected to the 36-member Council for a three-year term. South Africa garnered 151 votes to retain the council seat it first gained in 2003. This was an achievement for South Africa and the aviation industry in its role of supporting and executing the objectives and mandate set by the ICAO. History was made when Ms Poppy Khoza, a South African female and the Director of Civil Aviation, was appointed as President of the 41st Assembly. This is a world first in the 78 year history of ICAO. This was a proud moment for South Africa, a country that has been at the forefront of advocating for women’s equality, diversity, and inclusion. With this,

14 I Annual Report 2022/23 I General Information