• Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has launched the Fuze Aviation Academy Training Programme in KwaZulu-Natal, targeting rural and urban youth in the province.
• This as South Africa Airways celebrates a historic commercial flight with an all-black female crew from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
• With South Africa’s flight industry set to grow in the next two decades, trainees at the academy will be prepared to take advantage.

The Fuze Aviation Academy Training Programme was launched on Thursday last week by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube at Oribi Airport in Pietermaritzburg.

An initiative aimed at making aviation careers more accessible to “rural and urban” youth in the province, the training programme covers instruction for attaining a private pilot license, commercial pilot license, aircraft maintenance engineers and remotely piloted aircraft systems training.

Dube-Ncube, who has been in an education push for the province as of late, added that the academy has entered into a partnership with the government of KZN, through the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.

The premier hopes that the aviation training programme can aid with job creation, skills development and with the support of young people in South Africa’s aviation sector.

According to SA News, the current flock of trainees include 30 drone operators, 20 aviation engineers, and 10 private and commercial pilots.

Dube-Ncube said that despite South Africa being 28 years into its democracy, the country’s aviation sector remains mostly untransformed and “white-dominated.” The Fuze aviation training programme could be a door for young black people to enter the industry which has only begun to show transformation.

Last week, in fact, South African Airways celebrated that its first all-black female crew helmed a commercial flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

Independent Media reported that Captain Annabel Vundla and First Officer Refilwe Moreetsi, both alumni of the SA Air Force, have been in the industry for a significant amount of time.

Captain Vundla, who has humble roots in Mafikeng in the North West, has been flying for 22 years. She flew Oryx helicopters in the air force before moving to passenger aircrafts at SA Express in 2008. First Officer Moreetsi has been in the aviation industry for 15 years.

Training and tenure are essential in the commercial aviation space where experience means the difference between life and death.

Speaking at the launch of the aviation training academy, Dube-Ncube reiterated to cadets and graduates that there is no room for error when in command of 127 tonnes of steel hurtling through the sky.

“I wish to remind cadets and the graduates at the Fuze Academy that thanks to this strict, but necessary international and local governance of virtually every aspect of flying, there is no space for mistakes. There is no room for error because lack of attention to detail can cost lives,” she said.

“The Fuze Aviation Academy, with its various elements – charter business, cargo, repair and maintenance, pilot and cabin attendant training is thus posed to take its place in this attractive, safe and growing sector of our economy,” Dube-Ncube continued.

She added that the aviation industry in South Africa is set to grow with air traffic expected to double in the next 20 years and that attendees of the Fuze Aviation Academy Programme will be set up to take advantage of this growth first.

“In terms of employment opportunities, the world is your oyster as some of the biggest employers are aircraft and spacecraft manufacturers. There is no industry that is brimming with such opportunities and promise.”

[Image – Caleb Woods on Unsplash]