DANIËL KRIEL: Myeni's real victims
Disaster-ridden SAA would do well to imitate Emirates, which is state-owned but is run on a commercial basis without government support
As the future of SA Airways (SAA) hangs in the balance, it’s the airline’s exceptional rank and file who are bearing the brunt of this colossal failure of governance. They — the ground and flight crew, stewards and stewardesses, and pilots — are doing this despite the fact that if you pick up any newspaper, you’ll read some horrendous report about the airline’s finances or awful governance. Yet finance minister Malusi Gigaba has seen fit to extend the tenure of board chair Dudu Myeni until November, and the beleaguered airline is in line for yet another bailout, this time of R10bn. Gigaba seems to believe that SAA can be saved by further rounds of funding. His dogged conviction on this point makes one wonder to what extent it could be a case of protecting the gravy train: as it stands, all MPs — incumbent and former — get free flights worth millions of rand every year. But while the debates drag on, the ground and flight staff are doing their jobs regardless of poor management, appa...
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