DA demands immediate retraction of racist statement by the Department of Public Enterprises

12 April 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is demanding the immediate retraction of the racist statement issued by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) on its twitter handle @DPE_ZA. We also call for the immediate suspension of the DPE Director General, Mr Kgathatso Tlhakudi, in whose name the statement was issued.

The statement appears to target white pilots belonging to the South African Airways Pilots Association (SAAPA) by accusing them of wanting to enrich themselves from a "racially biased" labour agreement.

SAAPA is a collective labour association whose membership is composed of the airline’s racially diverse pilot cohort. After having failed to properly manage SAA, Pravin Gordhan’s Department has now resorted to applying racial divide and conquer tactics to mask its failures.

DPE must now retract this divisive statement, which has no place in democratic South Africa, and issue an apology to all SAA employees who may have felt racially targeted.

Mr Tlhakudi has no business being the head of a government Department if he stokes racial tensions in entities falling under his Department. Pravin Gordhan will be complicit in this violation of the constitutional principle of non-racism if he fails to act on his DG.

Issued by Ghaleb Cachalia, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprise, 12 April 2021