SAA cadet quotas: Solidarity campaign will clip airline's wings: #StopSAA: An absolute barrier carrier
The trade union Solidarity launched a public campaign against South African Airlines (SAA) after it became known that an absolute prohibition was placed against applications from white men for the airline's cadet programme. Solidarity demands that SAA immediately abandons its quota system. The campaign's slogan is: ‘SAA: An absolute barrier carrier' (see Beeld report).
Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity, called on South Africans to support the trade union's campaign. "The campaign will include, among other things, protest messages to Siza Mzimela, the CEO of SAA, and Cheryl Carolus, chairperson of SAA's board of directors. Solidarity will also use Facebook and Twitter to garner public support for the campaign."
Anyone can apply for the programme on SAA's website, but applications by white men are immediately rejected. "We applied using two identical profiles. The only difference was that one of the people was a young white male named Kosie and the other was a black man named Sipho. Kosie immediately received a letter in which his application was rejected while Sipho's application was accepted," said Hermann.
Kosie received a letter in which he was regretfully informed that his application was unsuccessful. "The letter also states that Kosie should not be deterred from applying for future positions in the SAA. We find this letter dishonest. Kosie's race will not change in the future. He will still not be welcome in the future. The protest message demands that the quota system should be abandoned with immediate effect and that the application process be reopened to give all South Africans a chance to apply," declared Hermann.
The public can send protest letters about SAA quotas to SAA through the website, www.stopkwotas.co.za. Another way to protest is by SMSing the word ‘Kwota' to 34388. An SMS will cost R2 and will be added to the other protest messages. You can also follow the campaign on twitter at #StopSAA
Statement issued by Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary: Solidarity, August 16 2012
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