South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has granted approval to the Rocketmine Division of Public Display Technologies (PDT) for the commercial operation of Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) - drones - for several key South African business sectors, including mining, agriculture and construction.

The approval sees PDT become the first licensed commercial RPAS operator in South Africa, with the licence effective immediately.

In May 2015, South Africa became a leader in the aviation industry by announcing the decision to regulate commercial drone use, with the regulations taking effect from July 1, 2015.

As a result, the SACAA application process was introduced with the intention of ensuring that drone operators meet standards for safety, security and privacy.

SACAA said it is pleased to grant the first licence to PDT, which was an engaged player in the process which led to the formulation of the new regulations.

"PDT is among the first organisations that regularly engaged the SACAA with regards to development and promulgation of the RPAS regulations. The journey involved various robust debates over the development phase, which ended in February of 2015 when the draft regulations were submitted to the Minister of Transport for approval. The regulations were approved and became effective on 1 July 2015," explains Albert Msithini, manager of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems department at the SACAA.

According to PDT, with licences being granted, drones are set to revolutionise how business is done across South Africa's industries.

"Using drones to conduct operational duties has produced high quality data in a fraction of the time and at a percentage of the costs. In the mining industry in particular, most high risk tasks conducted by our drones have eliminated the safety risk for mining staff," says Chris Clark, RocketMine Division head.

"There is no doubt that drones are set to revolutionise the way in which many key industries in South Africa conduct their business," Clark says.

The use of drones in the mining and agricultural sectors is already showing promise, but PDT says it expects the construction, forestry, and insurance industries to also be quick adopters of the technology.