Apologies to everybody who was expecting me to rant about how ridiculous it is that our finance minister was summoned, just 15 days before he’s due to present the mini budget, to appear in court.
I didn’t think I could turn a string of profanities into 700 words that were worth reading. Plus, it’s all pretty much been said. In case you missed it, Sechaba ka'Nkosi did a great piece on this mess earlier this week.
Instead, I’m going to turn my attention to our ailing national carrier.
The troubled carrier has, unsurprisingly, made yet another loss - this time of as much as R4.7 billion. And what led to this loss? Well, SAA - ironically - blamed the competitive environment and declining currency.
Those results came out about a month after it posted an advertisement saying it planned to raise R16 billion from banks and other financial institutions. That money will be used to fund working capital requirements and consolidate its debt portfolio.
In simple English: we don’t have enough cash to put planes in the sky, and we owe far too much money.
Well, colour me surprised.
SAA’s finest moment was its fly-by during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. That tournament we gloriously won a year after our first democratic elections, which saw everyone’s favourite statesman elected president.
It is beautifully re-enacted in the film Invictus, where Morgan Freeman plays a more-than-passable Madiba. That moment, for proud South Africans, is a tearjerker.
SAA has been pretty much in free-fall since then.
Legacy issue
I suspect, however, that the rot set in many moons ago.
SAA has a history of being an arrogant airline because it owned the skies; or, at least, thought it did.
And I say that with some measure of authority because I’ve had the pleasure of flying SAA, its baby brother SAA Airlink, and several other airlines, including BA, Delta and Emirates.
My experience dates back several years ago to when my mom took my little sister and me on a trip to visit her family in the UK. It was a comedy of errors getting to the airport: the taxi didn't pitch, the car wouldn’t start, and we went around Gillooly's Interchange several times before one of us finally saw the wee airplane on a signboard pointing the way.
We missed the SAA flight we had - for some unknown reason - been booked on, but somehow my mom managed to swap our tickets for ones on BA. And that was an enjoyable experience, and spoilt me because the flight back was on SAA, and wasn’t.
The air hostess was rude. There were no kiddy packs with colouring-in books. She didn’t give a toss about popping ears. I could go on and on.
My last experience was, likewise, not fun.
SAA Airlink’s planes are very small, at 31 seats. And it seems like the entire interior is in miniature size. I was lambasted because my hand luggage wouldn’t fit anywhere, and told it was too big. No, I said, it fits fine in the box where you check size at the check-in counter, your plane is too small.
Coming back from Zimbabwe, at least we didn’t have to board what I can only describe as a minibus with wheels, we had the pleasure of a full-sized plane.
And the air hostesses have not changed.
This particular one seemed impervious to the fact that a toddler was bawling its eyes out during descent. And, instead of just giving the poor child a sweet to suck, told its mother to tell it to swallow. Really?
It’s no wonder SAA is not the airline of choice it could be. Heck, if the Proteas can make history against New Zealand, it can be turned around.
But it really takes political will, and a board with integrity (not one tainted by cronyism), to turn this airline around.
Frankly, I don’t care whether SAA makes it or not. It’s a cash hole for all taxpayers, and it’s rich of the airline to blame the competition when those companies keep planes in the air without constant bailouts.
* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.
IOL