MEC David Maynier on bailout of state-owned airline South African Airways
21 October 2020
We are concerned that provincial budgets will be raided to fund the R10.5 billion to bailout zombie state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA).
So, last week I wrote to the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, to raise my concerns about the decision by national government to provide yet another bailout to SAA, saying:
“In this context, where provincial service delivery has been significantly compromised by budget cuts over an extended period of time, coupled with the possible enforcement of the current wage agreement, the decision to provide another bailout to South African Airways (SAA) is entirely unjustifiable and deeply frustrating to our efforts to protect frontline services.”
While we can’t know for certain if this will be the case, and if so, how large the cuts will be, we do know what we would have to sacrifice if provincial budgets are raided.