No hope for SA Express

Siza Mzimela, acting CEO of state-owned airline SA Express, has said that the airline “will break even by April and will not require further state support” I do not believe one word. State-owned entities (SOEs) never pull themselves out of their financial woes, because their management is customarily incompetent.

The Government Employees Pension Fund, whose job it is to invest and safeguard government employees’ pensions, has lost more than R7bn in bad investments; Steinhoff and VBS Mutual Bank (R5bn) and R1bn written off in loans and investments in companies controlled by Iqbal Survé’s Independent News and Media.

Given that the ANC and the government have an infestation of miscreants that are deployed to positions that require acuity and expertise, it is difficult to see past the ineptitude, corruption and malfeasance permeating SOEs. For instance, SA must be the only country in the world that has load-shedding in summer. Our national airline is bankrupt and trading in insolvent circumstances — a criminal offence in terms of the Insolvency Act.

For a while we were a country without a postal service. The list of departments, municipalities and entities broken beyond redemption is endless.

In all, the ANC is a kindergarten, masquerading as a political party, overstretched intellectually.