SACP welcomes overwhelming vote in favour of SAA rescue

14 July 2020

The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the overwhelming vote of 86 per cent in favour of the plan to rescue the South African Airways (SAA). The result is 11 per cent greater than the minimum requirement of 75 per cent. The outcome dealt a blow to unpatriotic elements and groupings that have relentlessly been campaigning against South Africa continuing to have its own national airline – in a global operating environment where the aviation sector plays one of the key roles in transportation, international trade and regional as well as continental integration. The voting took place at a virtual SAA creditors meeting held on Tuesday, 14 July 2020 in terms of the business rescue process as regulated in law.

The SACP expresses its sincere appreciation to all SAA workers who worked tirelessly and to the labour movement for waging the struggle to save SAA, protect employment, minimise job losses and safeguard the interests of the workers. The unions include the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and National Transport Movement (NTM). The SACP played and will continue to play its role in support of, and in contact with, the SAA workers and their progressive unions.

The importance of worker organisation and broader working-class unity cannot be overemphasised. The SACP will deepen its efforts to build broader trade union unity and forge a popular left front to advance and defend both the immediate objective interests of workers and the working-class movement’s ultimate goal of social emancipation, of a society that is free from the exploitation of one person, class or social group by another.   

The SACP commends the Department of Public Enterprises for the decisive leadership role it has played in ensuring that the plan to rescue SAA receives overwhelming support. We call on the government to make available the resources and provide the support required for the SAA rescue and operations plans to become successful. The government has made a commitment to that end in the February 2020 budget statement and must decisively match its words with its deeds.

The SACP further reiterates its call for the government to develop a whole-of-state aviation strategy in support of the national airline and aviation sector. All organs of state and agencies operating in the aviation sector must perform their work in such a way that will decisively contribute towards a thriving national airline sector with SAA and other national airline establishments playing a key role. The strategy should be underpinned by a national aviation industrial policy linked with the wider national imperative to build an integrated, safe, reliable and affordable public transport and transportation system.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, Central Committee Member for Media & Communications, 14 July 2020