Fedusa requests meeting with Finance Minister about state of SAA
3 December 2015
Concerned about the future financial sustainability and the economic viability of South African Airways (SAA), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), has sent a letter to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, expressing its grave concern with the current situation at the national carrier.
UASA is an affiliate of Fedusa and has represented workers at the airline for more than 30 years.
In the letter, Mr. Koos Bezuidenhout, CEO of UASA and President of Fedusa, says he fears a lack of intervention at the highest level may see the national carrier plummet due to the absence of governance, leadership and instability and that urgent intervention by Nene has become necessary. He also requests an urgent meeting between Nene and the Fedusa leadership to explain Fedusa’s concerns in detail.
Bezuidenhout further states Fedusa takes due cognizance of the fact that all internal avenues have been exhausted and no responses are forthcoming from representations made to SAA’s management.
“We have seen numerous CEO’s and executive teams come and go, but never before have we experienced the extent of pandemonium, such as the present. From a pure governance point of view, there seems to be a clear misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities among SAA board members, resulting in frequent changes in the executive team,” he writes.
He goes on to state that surely the current situation cannot be healthy in a global enterprise such as SAA.
“Because of a lack of leadership, staff members and unions are having a free for all on social media, making remarks that are causing serious polarisation among not only ground and cabin crew, but also among different race groups. Some even take the liberty of doing television interviews on SABC on the subject matter. Surely this cannot be condoned?”
In the letter Bezuidenhout says that the glorious airline that competed with the best in the world might be gone forever if drastic intervention is not implemented as a matter of priority. He further states despite numerous financial bail-outs from government in the past, there clearly still is no workable turn-around strategy in place.
Bezuidenhout appeals to the minister to address the matter with vigilance as failure thereof would certainly impact on the many strides that have been made to advance social cohesion, sound organisational practices, and escalate the overall status of the national carrier.
Issued by Andre Venter, Spokesperson of the trade union UASA, 3 December 2015
