Hon House Chair, it is very clear that the hon Paulsen does not care about the livelihoods of the 11 000 workers at SAA. It is very clear that his party and most trade unions in South Africa are only interested in their own ideology and in their own interests and not in the long-term livelihoods of workers in South Africa.
Let me explain it. A salary with no increase is better than no salary. What is currently going to happen to those 11 000 employees is that they are going to be unemployed. That is what you want and that is what trade unions in South Africa want, because trade unions are only interested in short- term gains.
Trade unions are currently the tail that is wagging the head of government. It is trade unions that are preventing government from doing what is necessary to be
done to save our economy and to install the actual solutions that are necessary, especially in terms of our state-owned entities.
What are trade unions doing? If we look at Eskom, we see that a competent CEO was appointed - Phakamani Hadebe. He identified the crisis as an unsustainable and inflated wage bill. He proposed wage freeze and what happened? The trade union and the ANC member referred to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Numsa, as irresponsible because they don't form part of the tripartite alliance, but your own tripartite alliance trade unions that form part of your federation do exactly the same. The National Union of Mineworkers, Num, did exactly the same with Eskom - threatened with industrial action and stopped the plans of the new CEO and he resigned.
The same happened with the CEO of SAA. Vuyani Jerana also had the correct plans in place but was forced to resign. He saw that he was not going to be able to turn around the ship, because of trade unions.
We must take a stance and this government must take a stance. You have to take a stance against your own tripartite alliance. You have to say, enough is enough. You have to say that we cannot afford wage increases. This 5,9% wage increase is unsustainable. The back pay until April 2019 cannot be afforded. At this stage, SAA cannot even pay their salaries on time this month. How will they be able to pay this money?
We say that enough is enough! Down with bailouts! Stop the bailouts. At this point in time, money that should go too improving our infrastructure and should go to providing services to the poor is going to SAA and to failed state-owned enterprises. We cannot allow more bailouts. We are in a fiscal unsustainable position and government knows this. The President knows this. The Minister of Finance knows this, but his hands are tied, because of the power of trade unions.
Afrikaans:
Genoeg is genoeg! Daar moet standpunt ingeneem word. Hierdie ieologie kan nie wen nie. Die EFF en hulle maatjies kan nie wen nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Hulle gaan
die land totaal en al vernietig met hulle ideologiese kortsugtige gesprekke en dieselfde met die ANC, wat nie standpunt teen die vakbonde wil inneem nie. Vyf-punt-nege persent kan nie 'n verhoging bo inflasie wees vir 'n instelling wat dit nie kan bekostig nie en vir 'n maatskappy wat insolvent is en wat 'n verlies van R500 miljoen 'n maand maak nie. Dit is onvolhoubaar. Genoeg is genoeg! [Tyd verstreke.]