SAA BAIL-OUT
LEON LOUW: High cost of flying the flag and keeping a fossil in the skies
"Like its predecessor, this regime thinks SAA is a ‘flag carrier’ because the pterodactyls’ tails bear flags in the hope that someone will recognise them when they land"
A terrifying flock of pterodactyls — gigantic dinosaur-era flying reptiles long presumed extinct — was spotted in our skies last week. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba reassured us that there was nothing to fear. His incoherent explanation intimated that because junk status places us so near the bottom, we have no downside risk and his bankrupt Treasury can feed the flock indefinitely. "The flock," he said, "was well known to the apartheid regime that even named it. They called it South African Airways [SAA]." Having inherited apartheid’s pterodactyl flock, the new government embraced it as a presumed benefit of colonialism, along with Eskom, the SABC, "black" land nationalisation, exchange control, corruption and countless survivors of the Jurassic extinction.Like its predecessor, this regime thinks SAA is a "flag carrier" because the pterodactyls’ tails bear flags in the hope that someone will recognise them when they land. The best and cheapest way to fly the flag is, of course, on...
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