Something rotten at SAA
On September 20, senior officials from the financially embattled SAA informed Parliament that the airline registered a total loss of R5.6-billon for the financial year 2014-2015. This is indeed an embarrassment to all South Africans.
We are supposed to be some kind of role model for Southern Africa and the entire continent.
We are supposed to be leading by example and excelling in all matters related to good governance, internal controls, risk management and financial prudence.
There is something rotten at SAA, and I think we, as taxpayers, are being given a half-truth about the situation.
I do not believe for a second that all employees and senior management at SAA are really so bad that they would have deliberately allowed one of the most strategic state-owned enterprises to be R5.6-billon in the red.
As a taxpayer, I do not think it is right for the treasury to continue to pump more money into SAA when there is no proof that the current acting chief executive officer, senior management and the new board have the capacity to rescue it from the financial dustbin.
South Africa urgently needs money to fund service delivery programmes, free quality education for all and to create meaningful employment for all our people — not just “job opportunities”.
We cannot continue to pump money into an entity that is failing. If there are any serious austerity measures that should be enforced in this country, they should be applied to SAA.
This also means all the free rides that MPs and MPLs have been enjoying for years must come to an end — all politicians and their dependents must pay for their own flight costs.
In addition, such austerity measures must apply across the board in South Africa.
The politicians, the ruling elite and the rich must feel the effects of these austerity measures more than the poor majority.
The state must ensure that it collects as much as possible from the elite and the rich. Political parties must fund all private and partyrelated activities undertaken.
The state must only take financial responsibility for state-related activities, and austerity measures must be enforced to limit unnecessary state activities and expenditure. —