By Arthi Sanpath
South African airport security equipment needs to be urgently updated to avoid further "national embarrassments".
Prince Mashele, a researcher at the Institute of Security Studies, who has written a paper on drug control in the country, said criminals were using sophisticated methods to evade security points to smuggle drugs.
Methods employed by criminals included "collusion" with people who operated security systems.
Mashele's comments come after Monday's drug bust at London's Heathrow Airport in which a South African Airways (SAA) crew of 15 were detained for allegedly carrying 2kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of R3,7-million, in an SAA-labelled corporate bag.
The crew, who operated flight SA234 from Johannesburg to London, were stopped by UK customs officials who found the contraband goods.
The crew were released yesterday and were expected back in London on April 6.
Officials were investigating how the drugs escaped the eye of security officers.
"Technology at the airports needs to be continuously upgraded because criminals find ways to out-do law enforcement," said Mashele.
"What happened was a national embarrassment, especially as you would expect employees to display the highest level of integrity," he said.
This is not the first case involving drugs and SAA crew.
Monday's drug bust was almost identical to last month's at the same airport, where an entire SAA crew were detained after 40kg of dagga and 4kg of cocaine was discovered.
In that incident, one of the SAA crew was arrested in London and a security guard employed by the company contracted by SAA to screen the crew's luggage was arrested in SA. Court cases are pending.
SAA has now launched a special task team comprising airline officials, Airports Company of SA (Acsa), SA Revenue Services and the police, said SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers.
Chalmers said the aim was to identify immediate additional measures aimed at stopping drug traffic through SAA and other carriers that operate at airports countrywide.
"The team will review the interventions implemented by SAA since the first incident in January, and manage the urgent implementation of additional security measures.
Randall Howard, general secretary for the SA Trade and Allied Workers Union, said: "This situation cannot be allowed to continue as it is highly embarrassing for our country, our people, the airline and all its employees who execute their duties daily with honesty and integrity."
South African Interpol and national crime intelligence spokesperson Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding said the crew would return home on Wednesday and would be questioned by crime intelligence officers and Acsa.