OR Tambo International Airport is vulnerable to attacks and its security is too lax. This is the assessment of security expert and Director at Signal Risk, Ryan Cummings.
Speaking to Political Analysis South Africa, on Wednesday, 21 February, Cummings, believes, “security at an airport is first and foremost about controlling access… but OR Tambo International Airport is too accessible.”
“OR Tambo [International Airport] and South African airports as a whole do not have enough security provisions that actually that do the routine security checks before an individual can access the airport complex, for example on airport roads – there are no manned checkpoints, no checks on vehicles, no scanning of number plates,” says Cummings.
He argues that authorities in South Africa are too complacent, and only see threats and security from the perspective of terrorism. “The thing is in South Africa we do not have the same kind of terrorist threat [as Egypt or Europe], but what we don’t realise, and has played out on a number of occassions, is that we have individuals who have a different kind of intent, but the same operational methods in terms of breaching our airport facilities.”
Cummings explains that “when you look at recent incidents for example, whether it is in the robbery at the cargo section of OR Tambo, or assassinations attempts against underworld figures within OR Tambo’s confines, the only difference between those assailants and a terrorist is that they have a discriminate intent, while terrorists don’t, their violence is more indiscriminate and they are there to communicate a political message.”
He says authorities should instead understand that “the modus operandi between criminals and terrorists is no different, the perpetrators are still coming in with heavy assault rifles, using stolen vehicles, vehicles with forged number plates – whatever the case may be. They are entering or accessing an airport facility exactly the same way a terrorist would, it’s just that the intent is different.”
Asked about why the South African public does not agitate for greater protection and security at airports in the country, Cummings thinks “it comes down to fact that we live in such a high crime environment in South Africa, where crime is an aspect of daily life, whether be at an airport, at a shopping mall, whether be it pulling up to your driveway or within your house. There are few areas in South Africa, few spaces, where people genuinely perceive as being crime free, which is the main issue. We have this perception, because crime is so widespread, so pervasive in South Africa, an airport is therefore not necessarily any different.”
