Between the Chains
SIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA: A state-owned nosedive
Finally, we have a price! The disastrous combination that is SA Airways (SAA) chair Dudu Myeni and President Jacob Zuma has cost SA the remarkable sum of R12.4bn in operational losses and bailouts in the past three years. Throw in about R14bn of guarantees over two decades, and you begin to get a sense of the scale of the damage.This, of course, is money that is being flushed down the long and winding drain that is SAA.Last year, the airline made a net loss of R1.8bn, after a R5.6bn loss the previous year.Then finance minister Pravin Gordhan was strong-armed into giving SAA another R5bn in guarantees — exactly the wrong sort of reward for years of looting and haphazard stewardship of the airline.Of course, the one constant presence throughout the past few years — years in which the airline was burning cash and suspending executives almost every day — was Myeni, comfortably ensconced in the chair.If we extend the period beyond simply Myeni’s tenure, the picture looks even worse. In a...
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