Civil Aviation Amendment Bill [B 44-2018]; Oversight Visit Report

Meeting report

Civil Aviation Amendment Bill [B 44 - 2018]
Adv Frank Jenkins, senior parliamentary legal advisor, made a brief presentation to the Committee on the research that he had carried out. He said that he was tasked with dealing with the money that must be paid to the board because the problem was that if one of the licensed service providers goes into business rescue or insolvent, it is difficult to get the money back. According to the Insolvency Act, and if the Committee would like to ring fence the money, it can be put it into a trust account but this has its own implications.

The second alternative is to make it a statutory privilege for service providers and should they go insolvent, the money will be due to the board. Section 99 of the Insolvency Act is not a problem because it sets out the creditors rank when there is insolvency and who gets paid out first depending on the rank. There are no legal problems from the policy. If the Committee takes such a policy then there is a need to apply to the House for permission since it is a new matter. Alternatively one can ask the Department or the Minister to look into the policy because when it comes to insolvency everyone who is owed wants to get something.

Discussion
Mr C Hunsinger  (DA) asked if this would be the only issue with regard to the Insolvency Act which applies to the intended Civil Aviation Amendment Act.

Adv Jenkins responded by saying that it was the only issue but the Civil Aviation board will have to be put as an entity in terms of section 99 of the Insolvency Act so that it will move from concurrent creditors to preferential creditors. When the consultations happen, there might be new ideas that can be given also by different experts.
The Chairperson said that the Members agreed this was the route for the Committee to follow. It was important to move on this Bill

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Transport on its Oversight visit to Assess the State of Readiness of the Various Modes of Transport and their Attendant Facilities in line with the Implementation of Level3 Regulations of the Covid-19 Lockdown

The Chairperson opened the floor to Members for them to engage on the Report.

Mr L McDonald (ANC) said that the Report was good and he was satisfied with it. He however raised the concern of whether the Department would take the recommendations of the Committee and stick to the deadlines because Members have to report back to their constituencies on the critical matters. There is a need for feedback from the Department.

The Chairperson was in agreement with the point raised by Mr McDonald and assured Members that they must work together to make sure that they receive feedback from the Department.
The Report was adopted

Committee Minutes dated 19 August 2020
The minutes were adopted

Meeting was adjourned.