Sell 'elitist' SAA - Gwede Mantashe

As the controversy over the near-collapse of South African Airways (SAA) deepens, ANC chair Gwede Mantashe has broken ranks with his party, saying the national carrier must be sold off if it cannot make money.

Speaking at an ANC birthday rally in Komga in the Eastern Cape yesterday, Mantashe said SAA was an "elitist" airline that did not serve the interests of the working class and should be sold to private buyers if it is unable to generate a profit.

"SAA . if it is always asking for money and it does not fly the working class but only elites, you must wake up and say 'these airlines are for elites . [subsidising them] is not subsidising the working class'.

"You can give SAA to anyone to run it . it is not flying the working class. The only ones who are ferrying the working class are the buses and the taxis. If we were giving this money to the buses, taxis and trains, you would have a case," he told the crowd in Xhosa.

Mantashe's comments fly in the face of pronouncements by the national executive committee of his own party, which is opposed to shutting down or selling SAA and wants it to be restructured.

Contacted for comment after his speech, the minerals & energy minister said he was not contradicting his party position but pointing out facts.

"We can't throw R2bn every month to SAA, we have given R3.2bn in December . but still they can't survive. It's a travesty of justice."

Government and ANC leaders expressed shock and anger at a decision this week by business rescue practitioners (BRPs) appointed to rescue the airline to cut key domestic and international routes.

The Sunday Times understands that the BRPs need about R8bn to implement their preferred turnaround plan for the ailing state airline, but South African banks have refused to give them a loan - even if the government stands surety.

The desperate practitioners have even approached an international bank, which would only agree to a much smaller loan.

The option believed to be favoured by the BRPs is termed "SAA Lite" and includes cutting as many as 4,000 jobs. Low-cost competitors are already circling highly skilled SAA staff such as technicians.

With the government criticising the options the business rescuer Les Matuson and his team have touted - which include slashing all domestic routes except Johannesburg to Cape Town - negotiators are said to be fast running out of options for the form SAA will take, or whether it will even continue to exist. All international flights deemed unprofitable or with narrow margins were also culled. These include Hong Kong, São Paulo, Munich, Luanda and Abidjan via Accra.

Matuson declined to comment.

On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa criticised the route cuts, and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said the government would make representations to the BRPs to restore some of the cancelled routes.

Speaking to the Sunday Times on Friday, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule also slammed the closure of the routes.

"You can't say you close profitable routes such and Johannesburg-Durban and other routes . and that is going to save you troubles, when those routes are 100% profitable."

Magashule said they wanted a restored and profitable national carrier. "That's why we said we can't privatise SAA because it can be rescued and it can be . profitable."

The cutting of routes began after negotiations between the BRPs and banks failed.