SAA soapie on a costly repeat
· Citizen
For a quarter of a century, the SAA story has played out like a long-running soap, equal parts drama, denial and déjà vu.
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If it were scripted, it would rival a Telemundo telenovela, complete with betrayals, reconciliations and plot twists that never quite resolve.
Instead of doomed romances, though, we have bailouts, boardroom exits, political interference and promises that don’t ever really survive the next episode.
Like the charming lead who cycles through lovers with alarming ease, ministers have come and gone, each offering reassurance, strategy and salvation.
Pravin Gordhan, Malusi Gigaba, Lynne Brown and now Barbara Creecy. The language changes slightly, the tone, too, but the outcome remains familiar.
Another reset. Another rescue. Another bailout. And yet, step onto an SAA flight and you are reminded that the airline is not the problem.
The pilots are professionals, the cabin crew composed and the service still holds its own. On the ground and in the air, there is competence that has somehow survived the turbulence above it.
The real dysfunction lies elsewhere. SAA has never quite managed to settle into a stable relationship with its finances, its strategy, or the taxpayers who continue to bankroll it.
That support may soon edge past R133 billion. It is a figure that invites uncomfortable questions about what else might have been built, funded or fixed instead.
Schools, hospitals and housing are what comes to mind. Cadre deployment and a flocking to the trough has been the consensus.
Others say its the ghosts of Dudu Myeni-past that continue to shape the present. Either way, the cycle persists.
All stories end eventually. When SA Express disappeared, the market adjusted.
If SAA follows, its final chapter may be marked less by mourning, than by relief. The tragedy is that those who kept it afloat may once again be left behind.