SACP welcomes return of SAA into active service

23 September 2021

The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the return of the South African Airways (SAA) on Thursday, 23 September 2021 into active service. Thousands of workers at SAA were adversely affected by the neoliberal policy regime to deprive the national carrier of adequate capitalisation. This was compounded by governance decay, state capture and other forms of corruption. Many of the affected workers were subsequently retrenched after the SAA was placed under business rescue.

Meanwhile, certain quarters argued that the SAA was not a strategic public entity, that it belonged to a category of an elite mode of transport. Apart from serving private profiteers and lacking a development vision, the argument turned a blind eye to the devastating consequences on the affected workers, their families, and the strategic importance of the aviation industry. Those who advanced it obviously did not see the need to develop, through state participation, affordable flights for the working class to reduce fatalities caused among others by long distance fatigue on our roads. Because of the persisting legacy of apartheid uneven development, South Africa registers many fatalities affecting the working class on our roads, especially but not only during major holidays. This must stop! The working class needs an integrated, reliable, affordable, and safe road, rail, and air public transport system. To this end, the state must play a leadership role and participate in the transport economy on behalf of the people as a whole.

It was against this background that the SACP had to fight against the attempts to liquidate the SAA or wholly privatise it. While we scored a victory in saving the national carrier, we lost a decisive stake to the so-called private equity partners. The working class needs to unite in solidarity and in pursuit of national development imperatives to defend everything remaining in the hands of the state not only at the SAA but also in other strategic sectors of our economy. Asserting public property rights, deepening, and widening public participation in the economy is in the interest of national transformation and development, towards the vision of the Freedom Charter.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member: Media & Communications, 23 September 2021