By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: William Horne.
The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has confirmed the refuelling challenges at OR Tambo International Airport have been resolved.
ACSA regional general manager, Jabulani Khambule says the fuel system at the O.R. Tambo International Airport is now fully operational.
This comes after Airports Company South Africa flagged “refuelling challenges” earlier.
Khambule said, authorities grounded some aircraft because they couldn’t refuel.
“We couldn’t then get fuel out of the fuel pump into the apron to refuel the aircraft, so that problem took us about three and a half hours to fix. We managed now in the last 30 minutes to have the valve open and are able now to send fuel to the apron and fuel the aircraft.”
The incident came just two days after pilots at the state-owned carrier SAA ended a strike, leading to renewed concerns about potential disruptions during the peak December travel season.
Meanwhile ACSA is also accused of publishing ‘fake’ financial reports after the company posted profits but failed to mention its debt running in the hundreds of millions dating back several years.
ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu recently shared that the company posted a R472 million after tax profit for the financial year 2023/2024.
While ACSA owes more than R550 million excluding interest on statutory increases owed to service providers and has locked the same service providers in arbitration processes and gagged them from any other recourse, it appears recent announcement of ACSA company profits is grossly overstated and may mislead shareholders and banking institutions.
It is well documented that ACSA is embarking on an R20 billion project to upgrade the current airports and is required to show profitability to secure this huge CAPEX. Amidst its troubles, the ACSA board of directors, executives, CEO and staff received absorbent bonuses.