Maimane lashes state over ongoing SAA bailouts

DA LEADER Mmusi Maimane said the government could not afford to continue “throwing billions” of rand at the loss-making national carrier South African Airways (SAA), while four children a day die of starvation in the country.

“Why keep subsidising the comparatively wealthy who can afford to fly, at the expense of the poor and the unemployed? Why do we have to keep saving SAA? No one in the government can answer this.

“We are propping up the failing SAA, because it’s just another great place for cadres and cronies to make lots of money,” Maimane said.

“On Thursday, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said SAA is a ‘national asset’. I would have thought a businessman like Cyril would know the difference between an asset and a liability. Calling SAA a national asset is not a good enough answer.

“Our parastatals have become massive ATMs from which the leeches who feast on our resources, suck money every month. That’s why we keep being forced to bail out SAA.,” Maimane said.

He was speaking at a billboard launch at Park Station in Johannesburg, which highlights the airline’s financial losses.

Maimane pointed out that the airline had received R35 billion in bailouts and government guarantees since 1999.

In the meantime, he said, 4 900 children under the age of five had died over the past three years in South Africa due to severe malnutrition, as confirmed by the Department of Health earlier this year.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is set to address concerns about the lawfulness of the latest bailout to SAA at the end of September, when he delivers his medium-term Budget policy statement to MPs tomorrow.

Last month, Gigaba dipped into the National Revenue Fund to give SAA R3bn to prevent it defaulting on its loan from Citibank.

He also gave a bailout of R2.2bn in June, bringing the cost of the bailouts for SA this year to R5.2bn.

Maimane said judging by Gigaba’s track record in all the cabinet positions he has held so far, he was not holding his breath that the finance minister’s Budget would serve South Africa’s poor.

Maimane said SAA must be placed into business rescue until it had stabilised and then dismantled and sold.

“The vast sums of money we will save can be ploughed back into any number of programmes that directly benefit the poor,” Maimane pointed out.

“We won’t be the first country to give up its national airline, and we certainly won’t be the last,” he added. – ANA