O.R. Tambo Airport concerned over safety

"The safety and security of passengers and visitors to O.R. Tambo International Airport remains of paramount importance to airport management," says airport spokesperson Leigh Gunkel-Keuler.

"We are therefore particularly concerned by the latest occurrence of follow-home crime in which two people were shot and wounded."

An Uber taxi driver and two passengers were shot and wounded during a robbery in Morningside of the weekend. 

Uber has confirmed it was a private trip arranged between the passengers and the driver and was not booked using the Uber app.

Police says the suspects followed them from the airport. 

Gunkel-Keuler says the South African Police Services (SAPS) is aware of the issue.  

"As airport management, we continue to engage with the SAPS on these matters and attempt to effectively communicate the concerns that we hear from the public. In addition, we provide any assistance we can to the efforts of the SAPS to prevent crime that is connected to the airport in some way," says Gunkel-Keuler.

Meanwhile, acting Senior Manager of Aviation Security Services at the airport, Kamal Shivanand, says their mandate is to control access into restricted areas and to screen passengers, hand luggage and hold baggage.

"Our task is to ensure the safe and secure facilitation of passengers in our airport as it relates to the first level screening of passengers, which includes the use of scanning machines, baggage screening and trace detection," says Shivanand.

"All this is done in order to ensure passenger safety and we are frequently subjected to independent evaluation."