10 February 2020
The utterances made by Cde Gwede Mantashe on Saturday, 8 February 2020, contradicted our shared strategic approach with the African National Congress (ANC) and the statements made by the President and the Ministry of Public Enterprises on Thursday, 6 February 2020. The SACP disagrees with Mantashe and the manner in which he came across.
Following its National Executive Committee Lekgotla held last month, the ANC made its stance on the South African Airways (SAA) very clear. The SACP shares a common position with the ANC on SAA. We want SAA to be turned around to thrive and serve as the mainstay in the domestic aviation industry with successful regional, continental and overseas routes. On Friday, 7 February 2020, before he left to the African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, over the past weekend, President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised the strategic importance of, and the role that should be played by a turned around SAA. He made it very clear that government does not agree with the routes cancellations announced by the joint business rescue practitioners on Thursday, 6 February 2020. The President further said the Ministry of Public Enterprises would release a statement taking forward what he said. This did indeed happen on Friday.
The abrupt announcement made by the joint business rescue practitioners liquidates, rather than rescue, SAA on all domestic routes except one, Johannesburg and Cape Town. In addition, the business rescue practitioners’ elimination of SAA in the domestic market shows no regard to the network impact both domestically and internationally on SAA, which is a network carrier and not a point-to-point carrier. It is inconceivable that SAA will succeed internationally without a footprint in its own domestic market. The statement by the business rescue practitioners makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for SAA to re-establish itself in the domestic aviation industry and reflects a blatant display of aviation industry inexperience if not bordering on commercial sabotage of SAA.
Furthermore, it is nonsensical for the business rescue practitioners to say they will only announce a detailed plan at a later stage. Every step being taken has to be justifiable. It must be according to an adopted turnaround strategy and rescue plan. All the proposals presented to the rescue process should be published and compared publicly. The rational and superiority for the model must be clearly spelt out for the public to reach its conclusion.
The business rescue practitioners should appreciate that placing SAA into a business rescue process was voluntary, as the government did say when it announced the decision. Moreover, the state remains the owner of SAA on behalf of the people as a whole and is the guarantor of the credit the national airline has received. The SACP reiterates the statements it has made on SAA:
Statement on the South African Airways and retrenchments in the economy https://www.sacp.org.za/content/statement-south-african-airways-and-retr...
and
Turnaround SAA, build a thriving public aviation industry - the way forward https://www.sacp.org.za/content/turnaround-saa-build-thriving-public-avi...
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ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP
EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA
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Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo
Central Committee Member: Head of Media & Communications
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