Privatise SAA to prevent further wasting of taxpayer’s money
4 May 2016
The latest turnaround strategy at the SAA, after ten previous ones had failed, puts a heavy burden on the taxpayers and the airline has to be privatised to prevent further wasting of taxes, Dr. Pieter Groenewald, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on finance, said.
Dr. Groenewald, during today’s budget vote debate of the department offinance, said that the SAA is technically bankrupt and financial statements aren’t even presented to parliament.
He said the reason for this is the request of the SAA for a further bailout of R5 billion from Treasury while Treasury is insisting on certain security undertakings before the money is made available. This boils down to a checkmate situation.
“Since 1999 to date, the SAA has received more than R30 billion in bailouts or state guarantees. Some experts calculate the figure to be closer to R45 billion. There is an attitude amongst the management of the airline that performance is not important and money is not a problem because Treasury will just give money again. This is simply unacceptable to waste taxpayer’s money this way.