LETTER: Kgathatso Tlhakudi will not ask about SAA as answers are too dire to accept
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In a beautiful twist of irony, the acting director-general of the department of public enterprises, Kgathatso Tlhakudi, tells us that we now live in a world where facts don't appear to matter, and then proves that facts don't matter to the department when it comes to SAA (Restructured SAA will boost aviation sector and act as vital lifeline, August 18 ( He writes as if he, the minister he serves and the department have been mere spectators to SAA's demise and not the root cause of it.
Let's consider some facts that matter. Tlhakudi tells us that over many years nine strategies have been implemented but failed because the board of directors failed in their execution each and every time. That is quite an admission if one considers that it was in fact the department of public enterprises that appointed those boards, albeit that oversight over SAA was transferred to Treasury for a few years.
It cannot be said that public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has not had a fair shake at SAA given his previous stints as finance minister. Tlhakudi tells us SAA has for years been undercapitalised, but the Scopa minutes tell us it has received R32bn in cash bailouts, and guarantees of R19bn, between 2003 and 2019, when it went into business rescue.
The reason SAA has no capital is because it lost it all through poor management, corruption and a more efficient private sector that outperformed SAA while its management was stealing the company blind.
And don't believe the nonsense that SAA has a development role; the route networks of both SAA and SA Express shrunk over a number of years while the private sector developed networks at no cost to the taxpayer. The one fact Tlhakudi gets right is that SAA's market share has shrunk from 90% to below 10%, but he doesn't ask why because that is where he'll find the answer that is just too uncomfortable to accept — the private sector is simply more efficient.
SA is indeed geographically dislocated, but the department cannot do anything about that; the answer is once again too simple to accept — allow the more efficient operators from the biggest hubs in the world, and anyone else who is interested, to provide connectivity to and from SA. SAA has already proven that it simply cannot compete in a competitive market and nothing suggests that this will ...
Let's consider some facts that matter. Tlhakudi tells us that over many years nine strategies have been implemented but failed because the board of directors failed in their execution each and every time. That is quite an admission if one considers that it was in fact the department of public enterprises that appointed those boards, albeit that oversight over SAA was transferred to Treasury for a few years.
It cannot be said that public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has not had a fair shake at SAA given his previous stints as finance minister. Tlhakudi tells us SAA has for years been undercapitalised, but the Scopa minutes tell us it has received R32bn in cash bailouts, and guarantees of R19bn, between 2003 and 2019, when it went into business rescue.
The reason SAA has no capital is because it lost it all through poor management, corruption and a more efficient private sector that outperformed SAA while its management was stealing the company blind.
And don't believe the nonsense that SAA has a development role; the route networks of both SAA and SA Express shrunk over a number of years while the private sector developed networks at no cost to the taxpayer. The one fact Tlhakudi gets right is that SAA's market share has shrunk from 90% to below 10%, but he doesn't ask why because that is where he'll find the answer that is just too uncomfortable to accept — the private sector is simply more efficient.
SA is indeed geographically dislocated, but the department cannot do anything about that; the answer is once again too simple to accept — allow the more efficient operators from the biggest hubs in the world, and anyone else who is interested, to provide connectivity to and from SA. SAA has already proven that it simply cannot compete in a competitive market and nothing suggests that this will ...
