SAA’s dreams the stuff taxpayers’ nightmares are made of – Solidarity

26 April 2018

Trade union Solidarity today said that the South African Airways (SAA) has reached a dead end and that they are deceiving themselves by assuming that the airline would be able to break even by 2021. 

This follows after Deputy Minister of Finance, Mondli Gungubele, requested Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations (Scopa) to grant the SAA bailouts of R21 million over the next three years in a bid to get it out of its predicament.

Connie Mulder, head of the Solidarity Research Institute, contends that it is clear from the SAA’s disastrous attempts in the past that the carrier lacks the skills, aircraft and ability to successfully implement this turnaround strategy. “The SAA is simply too deep in debt and the situation calls for an urgent and radical external intervention in the form of business rescue to turn it around,” Mulder said. 

Mulder added that taxpayers’ patience has run out. Tax payers are tired of seeing their tax money being squandered and thrown into a looting pit. “We are tired of losses and excuses. To ensure any kind of future for the SAA, the government should join Solidarity’s business rescue application for the SAA so that effective intervention in SAA management can take place and the airline can be partially or completely privatised,” Mulder said. 

“If we simply continue with the current pattern, we will only end up with the same problems. We cannot allow the SAA to simply submit another unfortunate presentation to Scopa next year while continuing to squander taxpayers’ money,” Mulder concluded. 

Issued by Francois Redelinghuys, Spokesperson, Solidarity, 26 April 2018