Right. South Africa, along with Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Romania still have tight controls over their airlines, all of which are in debt to the tune of many billions.
Many experts hold that a country should offer subsidies to a foreign airline to run routes that the government wants served. South Africa might not get the boost of having its flag carrier abroad, but taxpayers would win.
Anyway, all of this is moot. SAA is dying; it is in the departure lounge. A lesson that governments should never be involved in airlines. And if they do, a hands-off approach is needed, where government, which may or may not own shares, acts in the background to prop it up, but doesn't meddle much in day-to-day operations.
But the post 1994 ANC government has provided a textbook case for meddling, dictating labour hiring by way of cadre deployment at every level, and the facilitation of graft. For example, at SAA Technical, the maintenance wing, this meant an inflation of between 30% to 40% due to middle men in the overall expenditure of R3,4 billion.
For doing nothing, dololo. Nice work if you can get it, assuming you have zero morality, that is.
It might have also helped if SAA were located in a place where operating an airline hub makes sense. And in case you need a lesson in geography, we are situated on the southern tip of this continent, along with Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina; we are the closest land mass to Antarctica.
One continental success story is Ethiopian Air. A government-owned but business-driven enterprise that by most accounts is the only true global airline in Africa with a network stretching from Beijing to Los Angeles to Sao Paolo. It has been so successful that other African countries are asking it to manage their airlines.
So, sell this albatross to them or to Richard Branson or anyone else who may be interested. We'll probably have to pay them to take it off our hands. In any event, SAA is a limited liability company and the cost of closure standing at R19,7 billion.
The choices are clear: close it down, place it in business rescue or pay someone to take it over. And you might even negotiate a small carry to feed your socialist ego.
But to continue to bail it out, having shouldered bailouts to the tune of mega millions is sheer unadulterated madness. [Time expired.]
And as for Dudu Myeni, lock her up and throw the key away. [Applause.]