The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has hit hard at Deputy President Paul Mashatile over his comments that the government had no business in owning airlines.
The federation described Mashatile’s comments as reckless, and smacked of a person desperate to appeal to and make himself likeable to the private sector at the expense of the public.
Saftu’s General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, said the deputy president’s comments couldn’t come at the worst time, where there was an ideological onslaught against state and public ownership of the means of production and circulation.
Vavi said Mashatile’s statement contradicted the Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring Minister, Maropene Ramokgopa, who believed in the state ownership of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should remain 100% .
“Saftu wants state companies to remain in the hands of the public, not to be sold to the private sector. It is through public ownership that our historic demand for an affordable, reliable and safe transport system can be achieved for the poor working-class majority. This includes affordable planes, trains and buses.
“The relatively affordable Metrobus, which is wholly owned by the City of Joburg, is proof that public ownership of the modes of public transport can guarantee affordability and reliability.
“Underwritten by the state, SAA should be an affordable Airbus. In that case, it can achieve two things: to help the working-class people afford air travel, which, given the slow development of the faster railway, is the only mode of transport that is efficient for long-distance travel,” he said.
This, he said, would shorten the length of the trips migrant labourers from across nine provinces working in the different metropolitan cities, also reducing the road traffic that usually tragically cuts short, the lives of working-class people on the roads each festive season.
Vavi said it could contribute to external and domestic tourism, thus strengthening the tourism sector which contributed a minuscule 3.5% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 after being battered by Covid-19 restrictions and the sky-rocketed cost of living.
“Given a weaker currency, should a public SAA contribute to cheapening air travel, this could also boost inbound tourism. The consequence could be job creation. Selling the Airbus to the private sector, who are motivated only by profit, makes the Airbus inaccessible to working-class people. They can only ride Airbuses when paid for by their employers on business trips, not for personal use.
“Therefore we reject Deputy President Mashatile’s call to auction the SAA, especially after a botched sale went south with Takatso Consortium. The drive to privatise the state companies and liberalisation of markets that have predominantly been dominated by the state have found a refreshed discourse in the wake of the precipitous elections that eroded the ANC’s domination.
“Bourgeois economists have found new confidence in calling for privatisation, backed by comments of people in government like the deputy president, despite the government’s efforts to create a government holding company to preserve public ownership while insulating it from the executive interference that has brought many SOEs to their knees.”
During his interview with the “Sunday Times”, Mashatile said that the government was not in the business of owning airlines, and thus, bringing private players on board to make the entity profitable may be the best.
“I wouldn’t mind resuscitating SAA as a state-owned company, but my approach would be to partner with the private sector because I don’t think the government will have all the money (to run it). Remember, SAA was bailed out a number of times; the Treasury must have spent close to R9 billion trying to rescue it,” he said.
However, Vavi said Mashatile was wrong to think that the private sector would bring money to operate SAA if they were to partner with the government.
“The PPP models, and capital lately, demand government guarantees, including financial backing, which will be shouldered by the government’s fiscus.
“So, it is wrong of Deputy President Mashatile to think that private holders will contribute financially and relieve the government. If history is a teacher, we learn that the government will continue to financially guarantee SAA even if its stake can be sold to the private sector.
“Those who think ANC’s move to the right is because of President Cyril Ramaphosa, are disproven by the comments of the deputy president,” he said.
Vavi reminded South Africans and workers at large that the ANC was and has been pro-capital since the dawn of democracy.
“The call by the deputy president to have SAA sold to the private sector also shows that talks insinuating the ANC was somewhat left is delusional. It has been proven not only by the comments of the deputy president but by a track record of neo-liberal policy since 1994. Therefore, the idea that a left coalition could have been formed with the ANC and other parties was based on a false premise.”
The Star