“Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is aware of a recent incident at OR Tambo International Airport in which a passenger’s baggage was tampered with and possessions stolen – ACSA regrets this incident and would like to sincerely apologise to the affected traveller,” said the airports management company.

ACSA Regional General Manager of OR Tambo, Jabulani Khambule, said that ACSA is currently cooperating with the relevant airline and baggage handling company to ensure the incident is thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators are brought to book immediately.

Khambule clarified that while baggage handling is the responsibility of the airlines, ACSA will provide assistance and any relevant evidence, such as video footage, to aid the investigation and prosecute the perpetrators “to the full extent of the law”.

“I would like to warn all airport staff that any illegal or criminal behaviour will result in serious consequences,” said Khambule.

He also assured that ACSA will work to deter and fight fraud, corruption, dishonesty and theft of any kind.

“ACSA recently adopted an integrated, multi-agency safety and security approach throughout our airport network to enhance airport and aviation security in general.”

He mentioned that ACSA has rolled out an aviation security model that is vertically and horizontally integrated with various law enforcement authorities to root out criminality at our airports.

I’m terribly sorry for your experience, I can relate. this isn’t an @emirates issue, it’s an @ortambo_int issue, since they use common baggage infra for all airlines. It really sucks and it’s been going on for years, I don’t think things will change anytime soon.

— Wiza Jalakasi (@wizaj) January 3, 2024

[source:iol]