The SAA V2.0 Fantasy

There is rapidly mounting evidence that we are being conned by the government about the real chances of success for the new SAA version 2.

- ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN

IT HAS NOW BECOME CLEAR that the government has been making promises about its last surviving state-owned airline that it has no intention of keeping. By stubbornly pretending that SAA Version 2 will be viable, the government is perpetuating a massive confidence trick.

There are two key performance requirements for the future of SAA Version 2. The first is that it must be financially sustainable and thus meet Minister Pravin Gordhan's promises of not requiring any further taxpayer funding. The second is that a majority shareholding will be sold to a capable and experienced private sector operator who can impose the necessary disciplines for the airline to operate profitably. (And thus pay tax, instead of using it.)

Pravin Gordhan has made numerous assurances that the airline will no longer be using taxpayers' money. However, thanks to a parliamentary report of 25 February, we have had sight of the long-hidden mess of SAA finances for the past few years and even more tellingly, the projections for the next few years.

In the SAA fairy-tale, these numbers are a bitter pill we have been expected to swallow. Hein a bitter pill in the Keyser (formerly of Mango) SAA fairytale writes in the Citizen: "In January, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said that SAA was trading profitably. Less than a month later, National Treasury said the airline lost R50 million during the first three quarters of the 2022-23 financial year.

But the budget tabled on 22 February projected SAA's losses at R786.7 million, against revenue of R3.8 billion and expenses of R4.6 billion." There is no evidence that we have been lied to about the finances and are being led down the garden path about the prospects of the Takatso takeover ever happening.