High-flying shambles
AS A new MP, sworn in on October 26, I have to travel by air between East London and Cape Town every week. This has been my experience:
On November 21, our SA Express flight scheduled for 2.20pm failed tor materialise. Then our rescheduled flight to 7pm was “delayed”. We had been waiting since 1pm to fly to Cape Town. We flew out at about 8.30pm. Hardly 20 minutes into the flight the aircraft had to turn back to East London due to “technical problems”.
We stayed locked in the aircraft after landing in EL for 20 minutes as the airport had been closed and staff had to be recalled to open it. Passengers living outside EL were given accommodation, but suffered immense inconvenience. Some were businesspeople who had flown into EL for the day, not intending to sleep over and had no toiletries or fresh clothes. Business appointments were also adversely affected.
A week later, on November 28, the SA Express flight scheduled for 2.20pm was again “delayed”, this time for 90 minutes. After we finally landed in Cape Town, the pilot told us he had “brought us safely and that’s all that matters”.
Now it is Thursday, December 1, and I am at CT airport where it has just been announced that the 5.20pm flight to EL has been delayed – we will only board at 6.30pm.
The staff can’t even tell one the cause of the delay. All of this suggests poor leadership and a downward spiral for SA Express, possibly there are not enough aircraft and/or there is a lack of engineers to fix them.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown should urgently account to parliament for the chaos at SA Express. These problems not only inconvenience passengers but are bad for business investment in East London and the region – which we can’t afford. EL needs investment, efficient services and job creation.
Apart from the inconvenience for passengers, there are additional parking fees. And above all else the question lingers, can the possibility of fatalities and carnage be ruled out when technical problems are detected so frequently and sometimes only in the sky?
It has just been announced that the PE flight has been delayed . . . what a shambles. — Vusi Magwebu, Easterm Cape the liberation of the oppressed people of Chile, Nicaragua and Grenada. On our continent Cuban assistance was very pragmatic, providing political education and training liberation armies such as MK and providing rigorous intellectual preparation to deal with social delinquencies such as education and health problems.
Cubans under Castro fought with passion and commitment on the ground against apartheid forces in Angola, until the battle of Cuito Cuanavale which assisted towards the independence of Namibia and tilted the scales for the release of our own political leaders and the unbanning of the ANC and other liberation parties such as the PAC and Azapo.
We shall remember Castro for telling powermongers and capitalist salivators that the involvement of Cuba in Africa was not for silver, oil or any material gain. Even after their involvement in African struggles the Cubans went home with nothing but their fallen soldiers.
We shall also remember Castro for reminding those at the helm of multilateral bodies such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank that as long as there are inequalities and exploitation of the poor by the rich the revolution will continue. We shall remember Fidel Castro’s legacies – the best education and healthcare reforms which meant that remote rural places such as Thorha village in the Eastern Cape now has a medical student doctor in Cuba.
We ought in our contemporary time to resolve to be resolute and committed to no one but the revolution. We ought to stand firm in what we believe in – the Freedom Charter in the South African case and carry on with National Democratic Revolution. We ought to reject capture by any psuedo-imperialistic or capitalistic tendencies. Fidel Castro was a tower of resilience; a beacon of hope; a pillar of our struggles. May his soul rest in peace. — Zibele Xuba, ANC Chris Hani