SAFTU lash out at Mashatile’s utterance on SAA privatisation

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Saftu says the call by Mashatile to sell SAA to the private sector shows that talks insinuating the ANC was somewhat left is delusional.

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has lashed out at the comments made by Deputy President Paul Mashatile that South African Airways (SAA) should be sold to the private sector.

Mashatile said the government “is not in the business” of owning airlines and should consider selling SAA if there are private players with the money and expertise to make it profitable.

The federation said Mashatile’s utterances are reckless, and smacks of a person desperate to appeal to and make himself likable to the private sector at the expense of the public.

“These comments come at a time when there is an ideological onslaught against state and public ownership of the means of production and circulation,” Saftu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi lamented.

He further said, they contradict the encouraging statement made by the Minister of Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring, Maropene Ramokgopa, who preferred that the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) should remain 100% owned by the state.

Vavi continued; “SAFTU wants state companies to remain in the hands of the public, not to be sold to the private sector.

“It is through public ownership that our historic demand for an affordable, reliable and safe transport system can be achieved for the poor working class majority.

SAA should be an affordable Airbus

“This includes affordable planes, trains and buses. The relatively affordable Metrobus, which is wholly owned by the City of Johannesburg, is proof that public ownership of the modes of public transport can guarantee affordability and reliability.

“Underwritten by the state, SAA should be an affordable Airbus. In that case, it can achieve two things: to help the working class people afford air travel, which, given the slow development of the faster railway, is the only mode of transport that is efficient for long-distance travel.

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“This means migrant labourers from across 9 provinces, who are working in the different metropolitan cities can shorten the length of their trips to home, whilst reducing the road traffic that usually tragically cuts short, the lives of working-class people on our roads each festive season.”

Vavi highlighted that selling the airbus to the private sector, who are motivated only by profit, makes the airbuses inaccessible to working-class people.

He added; “They can only ride airbuses when paid for by their employers on business trips, not for personal use. Therefore we reject Deputy President Mashatile’s call to auction the SAA, especially after a botched sale went south with Takatso Consortium”.