Ethiopian Airlines can teach SAA how to soar

I hope the inept South African Airways administrators have learnt from the recent aviation conference in Sandton, which highlighted the successes of Ethiopian Airlines.

One can only guess that the only practical reason why our government is not seeking advice from the Ethiopians and/or recruiting competent administrators from the hugely successful Ethiopian Airlines is about ego. There are many other successful African stories that we can learn from.

Black South Africans harbour a subconscious contempt for their race and consider themselves to be part of the blessed segment of African people.

Expensive CEOs from the West have failed dismally to turn around the fortunes of our ailing airline. While Ethiopian Airlines contributes billions of rands into their fiscus, our Treasury is coughing out billions of rands into the bottomless pit that is SAA.

The problem lies in the fact that we achieved our liberation without consciousness. The apartheid murderers of Steve Biko must be smiling in their graves because they have achieved their objective of instilling self-hate in the African psyche.

True liberation can only be achieved when our minds are free. Not until we free ourselves from mental slavery, the fashionable catchy slogan of “radical economic transformation” will remain a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained. Richard Maswanganyi Moreleta Park, Tshwane