Eaarlier this week, it was widely reported that 38-year-old Tom Morgan, a reckless sort from the UK, had drifted some 24km through the skies above Johannesburg in a lawn chair attached to a hundred helium-filled balloons.
It wasn’t long before it was suggested on social media that tourists were taking desperate steps to avoid flying with SAA. And why not? We need to chat about this particular dead horse.
In his maiden Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba promised that a “strategic partner” would be found for SAA. At the same time, he banged out some nonsense about why the government should keep the airline.
It was admittedly a tough baptism of fire for the preening peacock. Before his speech, Gigaba paraded merrily about the parliamentary precinct with Accused Number One, Jacob Zuma, and his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, all thumbs up and beaming broadly for the camera.
He had a fair stab at telling us we are alarmingly deep in the brown
stuff. Growth forecast was revised from 1.3% to 0.7%. Debt would escalate to 61% of GDP by 2022. Tax collections were R50.8billion less than projected in February.
Gigaba did happen to mention that, although not off the agenda, the country couldn’t afford the nuclear deal at present. This, in the presence of new Energy Minister David Mahlobo, lurking like a brute sea lion a short distance from the podium. It takes a brave man to do that.
Sadly, the markets didn’t think much. The rand tanked and further downgrades by the ratings agencies loom. This in turn will result in an even weaker rand and higher borrowing costs, a situation Gigaba, his grin now more a death’s head rictus, failed to mention on Wednesday.
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Meanwhile, he has insisted money will continue to be squandered on illogical SAA bailouts. It was "in the national interest”, he told the National Assembly, not to cede “connectivity to all parts of the world” to other airlines.
“SAA sells South Africa’s economy, tourism and culture to every one of its passengers. Global airlines do not, and will not, perform this priceless marketing and branding role.”
This is frankly rubbish, patriotism being the refuge of a scoundrel. But it got worse. Gigaba later told businessmen the airline employed 10500 people and it would be a huge blow if the government lost SAA and jobs were lost.
“Selling it would have a trigger effect on other lenders and people who borrow money from South Africa. Selling SAA would create a very bad impression for our economy.”
A bit late for such considerations, you’d think.
Here at the Mahogany Ridge, we remember that it was on Gigaba’s watch, as minister of public enterprises, that the rot of mismanagement, corruption and looting began at state-owned entities like SAA and Eskom.
We also recall a 2012 fin24.com report which highlighted the airline’s inefficiency by comparing staff numbers to the size of its fleet. SAA had almost 165 workers per aircraft, way more than other airlines. Kenya Airlines, for example, had about 105, Qantas had 109, American Airlines 87 and United Airlines 71.
Five years later, SAA has reduced its fleet from 61 aircraft to 55, with about 191 employees per airliner.
Now consider Ryanair. Its employee to aircraft ratio is about 30 to one. True, it’s perhaps unfair to compare this low-budget Irish airline with SAA.
But Ryanair is a successful operation. According to its website, it employs about 11700 people, operates more than 1800 routes and will carry some 131million customers this year. It has a fleet of 400 aircraft, operates in 33 countries from some 200 airports, has 86 bases in Europe and North Africa, has an 88% punctuality rate and an unblemished 32-year safety record.
SAA, on the other hand, has been saddled with Dudu “The Dodo” Myeni, the president’s special lady friend. She was fired earlier this month, but during her time there - she was first made a director in 2009, then chairman of the board in January 2015 - the airline’s bailouts escalated dramatically.
According to Business Leadership SA chief executive Bonang Mohale, the government has spent some R50bn on SAA since 1999. For that amount of money, Mohale told a recent panel discussion, “we could have bought Emirates Airlines”.
Good job we didn’t. We’d have screwed that one up, too.
* Andrew Donaldson’s A Famous Grouse
column appears in the Independent Media print titles every Saturday.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers