ACSA Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has noted media reports on the delays in processing passengers at King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) linking these to the biometric and digital identity technology.
The organisation has issued a statement, confirming that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and the Border Management Agency (BMA) are implementing a Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) at the immigration and emigration areas in three of ACSA’s airports.
The system went live in 2022 at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) and Cape Town International Airport.
“We can confirm that the BMCS, which was introduced at KSIA in the last few weeks, has been experiencing post-implementation challenges, causing long queues in the immigration areas,” according to the statement. “The BMA’s technical team is working on improving the situation by, amongst others, increasing the bandwidth to ensure the system remains online and reducing the manual processing of passengers. ACSA and BMA apologise to passengers for the delays and inconvenience caused.”
Regarding the awarding of the BMCS tender to IDEMIA on behalf of BMA, ACSA states that it published a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the Automated Border Control (ABC) project, e-Gates and single token for a period of 60 months as part of its biometric and digital identity technology programme.
A year prior to the publishing of the RFP, ACSA engaged in industry research to develop specifications including BMA-appointed French multinational technology company, IDEMIA.
“This exercise sought to understand the BMCS system and its functionality as it was the system which ACSA’s ABC eGates would have to integrate. This is a normal and acceptable practice, especially when an organisation intends to procure a system of this magnitude and technical complexity,” ACSA states.
“Having followed a prudent procurement process, the contract to the value of R115-million was awarded to IDEMIA. It required that at least 30% of the contract value be subcontracted to a South African, black-owned Exempted Micro Enterprise (EME) and/or Qualified Small Enterprise (QSE). As such, the winning bidder had a teaming agreement with a local company called InfoVerge as its black-owned EME/QSE partner (B-BBEE partner) for purposes of complying with EME/QSE requirements in the RFP.”
ACSA sought to resolve a dispute between the two companies, but they were unable to reach an amicable resolution. This resulted in InfoVerge approaching the High Court Gauteng Local Division (High Court), seeking relief to set aside ACSA’s decision to award the tender for the provision of Automated Border Control project to IDEMIA.
“It is important to categorically state that the matter is a contractual dispute between InfoVerge and IDEMIA, and there is no allegation of irregularities regarding ACSA’s procurement processes in the current legal proceedings before the High Court,” according to the ACSA statement.
“Notwithstanding the current challenges, ACSA is excited about the prospects of the biometric and digital identity technology that is being procured,” it continues. “The technology will redefine the airport experience in South Africa and is expected to be rolled out across the ACSA airport network in 2026. It will streamline immigration processes, reduce transaction times, enhance security and passenger experience.
“ACSA has finalised a future-proof technology solution, with the first phase set for delivery in November 2024. While the technology is still in the planning phases, we are confident that, once fully rolled out across the ACSA airport network, the BMCS system will facilitate seamless connections of passengers to their next destinations, opportunities, and goals.”