South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has reiterated its call for South African Airways (SAA) chairperson, Dudu Myeni, to be fired, and for the “money-sucking state-owned airline” to be privatised.
The Shadow Minster of Public Enterprises, Natasha Mazzone, noted in a statement that she would write to the Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, and “implore him” to begin the process of selling off SAA. “It is no longer tenable for the people of South Africa to continue to fund SAA and Ms Myeni’s perpetual mismanagement,” she said.
Her statement, posted on the DA website today, follows reports on Sunday that the troubled national carrier’s losses seemed to have doubled in this financial year to reach a staggering R4.7 billion.
The City Press newspaper reportedly received an extract of the SAA financials which appeared to show almost double last year’s loss of R2.5 billion. Extracts from the financial statements show that while revenue flat lined in 2014/15, costs rose by R956 million to R31.6 billion.
The official financial statements are due to be released in January next year.
“At a time when service delivery is falling by the wayside, the future of the country’s students at higher learning institutions is being compromised, and job opportunities are decreasing year on year, the government can no longer afford to keep SAA in the air,” said Mazzone.
She pointed out that SAA had become accustomed to blank cheques from Treasury to fund an airline which showed no clear signs of recovery.
