Trevor Manuel, former Finance Minister and Chairperson of the National Planning Commission, said that South Africa’s biggest airline was stolen and destroyed.
He made these comments during a review of South Africa’s post-1994 governance at the National Democratic Revolution Seminar last month.
Manuel was critical of systemic corruption, the collapse of public services, and the post-2007 political trajectory in South Africa.
He noted that, during the Presidencies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, when he was finance minister, there was strong economic growth.
“We were seeing growth, and with that growth came job creation. It isn’t like a light switch; you have to get all kinds of issues in alignment,” he said.
Manuel highlighted that, amidst this economic growth, the country was also making substantial progress on state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including South African Airways (SAA).
“I remember the launch of the new tail, the tail we have on SAA now, replacing the orange tail with a blue springbok,” he said.
“It was a matter of pride, and we had an airline that carried us across the world because we were a country of substance.”
SAA was the continent’s leading airline, with long-haul flights to prominent destinations like New York, London, Hong Kong, and South America.
The collapse of South African Airways
However, during Jacob Zuma’s Presidency, SAA collapsed. It started recording massive losses and relied on multi-billion-rand government bailouts to survive.
SAA became one of the focal points of State Capture, highlighting widespread institutional corruption and political interference.
The entity experienced frequent leadership changes, politicised board appointments, and compromised procurement processes that hollowed out the airline, according to Newsday.
In 2019, SAA became the first SOE to enter voluntary business rescue. This issue was soon compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which grounded global aviation activities. SAA ceased all commercial operations.
During the recovery period, the administrators downsized, cutting the workforce, reducing SAA’s local and international routes, and cancelling the lease on most of its aircraft.
SAA came out of business rescue in September 2021, but is struggling to maintain its business and is operating at a fraction of what the company achieved at its height.
Manuel said it was deeply disappointing to see what had happened to South Africa’s national air carrier, which had operated for 90 years.
“SAA wasn’t privatised. It was stolen. We have to call it what it is: it was stolen and destroyed in the process,” he said.
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