Mr Bongani Msomi
UDM Secretary General
The United Democratic Movement takes note on contradicting statements issued over the weekend by the President of the ruling party and his National Person on the ailing state-owned entity the South African airways. The President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa insisted that SAA will not be sold or shut down and within hours the chairperson, Mr Gwede Mantashe told the nation that this entity should be shut down if it does not make profit.
The ANC recently had a lekgotla, and they had promised the nation that the issue at SAA was going to be discussed, but from these statements one may conclude that there was no discussion, if there was, no agreement was reached as to how this important would be made viable. If it is like this at SAA, what about the other SOE’s? Seemingly the ruling party does not have a strategy to make these SOE’s to operate as companies that sustain themselves.
The ANC is in the about what needs to be done to save these SOEs. This might be the reason why the rescuing practitioners of SAA are now dictating terms on how the entity should operate hence certain domestic and international routes had to be abruptly stopped without the approval government. This has turned South Africa a banana republic.
The State Owned Enterprises need a decisive leadership and intervention not what it is being heard, that is, dissenting voices of the senior leaders of the ruling party and the government. The majority if not all SOEs are currently in the Intensive-care unit (ICU), they are not making any profit. These SOEs are supposed to be contributing to the GDP of the country yet they are a liability. This is a biggest shame.
How long will the hard-earned money of taxpayer’s money keep saving these SOEs?
The problem with ruling party is for it to admit that cadre deployment is killing these SOEs and it is afraid to take drastic actions as it does not want to lose support from their comrades who are somehow being compensated for failing to make it to parliament or provincial legislatures. This must stop if South Africa is be made a winning nation.
Issued by: Bongani Msomi
UDM Secretary General
