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Polokwane hosts International Civil Aviation Day

Poppy Khoza
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The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) says they hope to spark the interest of the youth, by introducing them to the aviation industry.

It comes as SACAA hosts International Civil Aviation Day at the Polokwane International Airport in Limpopo.

In 1996, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that the world must celebrate civil aviation and recognise the importance of it. Hundreds of learners from Limpopo are attending the programme.

SACAA CEO, Poppy Khoza, says funding and resources remain a challenge in educating the youth about aviation.

“How best can we spark the interest and how do we make the issues of funding and resources to get the kids who are interested to be taken on to be pilots and aeronautical engineers or air traffic controllers and so on. So it is a matter of all of us coming together to say we cannot have enthusiastic learners, but there are these barriers. So we need more strategies so we can make it more accessible,” says Khoza

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Transport Dikeledi Magadzi has encouraged rural school children to consider aviation as a profession.  She was speaking at the International Civil Aviation and Airshow Day.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to officiate the event.

Magadzi says, “What is critical is that we have invited schools so that we can be able to introduce them to professions that are there in aviation. We have nautical, aviation, your engineering, your pilots and  such that our children will now be exposed and we know that post-matric these are other professions that they can do.”

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