The Oppenheimers’ plans to run customs and immigration services at OR Tambo International Airport is on hold for now, pending the outcome of possible appeal proceedings against last month’s Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) judgment in favour of the family, notes a Pretoria News report.

Judge Sulete Potterill ruled that the former Minister of Home Affairs and now Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba, did give the Oppenheimer’s, through their company Fireblade, permission to run customs and immigration services at the airport. The Minister and the department’s DG have applied for leave to appeal, planning to take the matter to the SCA, and Potterill is expected to give judgment on the application on Friday.

The Minister and the department cited a number of points in which it is claimed the judge erred when she came to the conclusion that Gigaba did, in fact, give the Oppenheimers permission to go ahead with their proposed luxury VVIP terminal.

The applicants also argued that the judge had erred in failing to consider their counter application, which they had lodged together with the main application.

They asked for an order which declared that ‘the power of the Minister to designate a place as a port of entry, can only be used where such a port would be used by all persons and become accessible to all persons'. It was said by the Minister and the department that while the judge did acknowledge the counter application, she simply did not rule on it.

Full Pretoria News report