Spotlight Episode 22 - South Africa

And this is where we normally move to the association part.

So I already mentioned the name once, the Guild of Air Traffic Controllers of South Africa, GATSCA.

That's a tongue twister.

Tell us about that.

Where is that coming from? What's the history there?

its roots from Satka, which is when back then, right? So the Department of Transport, the African Department of Transport used to be the ones that managed air traffic control.

And then later on, Yeah, so SADCA existed before the current ANSP was formed.

So back then, like I say, air traffic control was managed directly by the Department of Transport.

So if you were an air traffic controller, you were employed by the Department of Transport and not by the ANSP, which is what later got put into place.

So when the ANSP was then established, GATSCA emerged, right? But then initially when GATSCA emerged, it emerged as both a professional association and a trade union.

Then around 2004, the two were separated, where GATSCA then continued as a professional association and then a trade union was employed to only manage labor issues and whatever trade union related matters.

Okay.

So you split a part into traditional federation part, the professional part, and the trade union part.

Trade union part, yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And how big is the association or the guild to be specific? How many members do you have?

So the member association currently is, it's growing.

I don't have the exact numbers at hand.

So then one of my core roles is trying to get more members into the association.

Getting ADCOs, because it serves both the ADCOs and the ATSOs, which are our assistants, right? To get them, yeah.

Because some might have left because not everybody understands that the that you can have a trade union and be part of a member association, right? So the numbers...

Yeah,

that's a difficult part.

It is, yes.