Taxpayers funding special Discovery Bank queues at biggest airport in South Africa

Home Affairs has ignored questions about its employees, systems, and taxpayer money being dedicated to the Discovery Bank Fast Track Lane at passport control in OR Tambo International Airport.

Acsa and Discovery Bank entered into a commercial agreement in 2019 that gives the bank’s Purple and Black account holders dedicated lanes for specific queues at the OR Tambo and Cape Town airports.

Many airports worldwide offer similar dedicated priority queues at security checkpoints for an extra fee or for travellers using premium flight options or particular products.

Discovery Bank’s Fast Track Lanes are available at the security checkpoints in the domestic terminals at both airports.

There seems to be nothing untoward about this arrangement, as Acsa manages security and is benefiting commercially from the agreement.

However, there is also a Discovery Bank-branded Fast Track Lane at passport control in OR Tambo Airport’s international arrivals terminal.

Passport control is handled by the Border Management Authority (BMA), which is part of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The BMA’s staff and systems are funded by taxpayers, not Acsa.

While the DHA may potentially welcome additional funding to strengthen its public service mandate, Discovery Bank has confirmed to MyBroadband that it had no partnership for Fast Track with the BMA.

Plane Talking managing director Linden Birns recently explained that many overseas airports had fast-track lanes for passport control — including Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Dubai.

“These are usually for Business Class, First Class and top-tier frequent flyer programme travellers,” Birns said.

“At Frankfurt, Lufthansa Senator club members (their top frequent flyer tier) even have a separate terminal and a limo service to take them to the aircraft.”

However, South Africa’s Home Affairs department has been averse to commercial agreements that would give preferential treatment to specific clients based on their financial standing or product choice.

The department was previously at pains to explain that a “premium” paid service it planned to offer would not be a fast-track for document processing.

It also recently scrapped a deal with Betway that provided free Wi-Fi to 23 of its branches in exchange for advertising space.

Like Home Affairs offices, passport control points are national assets, which the department currently seems unwilling to use for commercial benefit.

If it were willing to do so, many would argue that the additional revenue must be reinvested in improving its public services.

At the moment, Acsa and Discovery Bank are the only parties benefiting from the Fast Track arrangement at OR Tambo’s passport control — at the taxpayers’ cost.

Silence from Home Affairs — while Acsa dodges questions

Home Affairs has failed to acknowledge MyBroadband’s query for over a week, while Acsa provided a vague response that failed to address any of our specific questions, which included:

• Why do Discovery Bank customers get preferential treatment at passport control at OR Tambo? Is the bank paying the department for this privilege?
• If so, what are the terms of the agreement, what is its legal basis, and is the option open to other banks?
• If there is no agreement, why is this being allowed?

Acsa’s response was that the Fast Track facility was introduced through a concession model as a trial to align with international best practices.

It said that the facility remained an Acsa-owned service offering and would continue to be offered to its airline partners in line with international standards.

“In addition, Acsa will rebrand the facility and invite the public to participate in a tender process to gain access for their high-profile clientele,” Acsa said.

Acsa did not provide any explanation for why the Discovery Fast Track Lane extended into passport control, which is not manned by its staff or systems.