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14 June 2019

NUMSA AND SACCA MEET WITH THE SAA BOARD

For Immediate Release

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) together with the South
African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) met with the board of SAA yesterday. This
meeting was made possible because of the courage and determination of our members
who picketed and protested on Tuesday to highlight the crisis at SAA and SAA
technical.

During our meeting we highlighted several key issues, which had been the subject of
the memorandums which we handed to SAA and SAAT management. Our key demand
is that the former CEO Vuyani Jarana must be reinstated immediately. He produced a
turnaround strategy, which won the support of government, the board and the unions. If
it were not for government withdrawing its financial support and the backing of
government guarantees, Jarana would not have resigned. Secondly, his turnaround
strategy was not limited to government, but enjoyed private sector funding. At the center
of it, without retrenching workers, the strategy had the capacity to turnaround SAA by
2021. We want him to finish the work which he started, because we believe that this
strategy can make SAA profitable once again.

The board, through Martin Kingston, has informed the public that it has government’s
backing on the turnaround strategy. And yet, when we met with the board, the
Chairperson, Mr. Magwaza said there is no funding for the turnaround strategy and no
funding capital for the airline. These are two conflicting messages and we demand
clarity on this matter because the survival of the airline is at stake. If it is true that SAA
has the backing of the shareholder, which is government and Treasury, then we want to
understand the details of the nature and form of this support.

We also demand an explanation about the ties to the Rothschild family. The
Rothschild’s are interfering the same way that the Gupta family was interfering in SOE’s
and they are doing it for their own selfish and greedy purposes. It is clear to us that the
agenda here is to collapse SAA in order to privatize it for the benefit of the Rothschilds.
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SAA is a strategic state owned asset and we will do everything in our power to save it
from privatization. Last year, during the Eskom wage negotiations, NUMSA stumbled
across a letter which was written by the very same Martin Kingston for the attention of
the GCEO of Eskom, Mr. Phakamani Hadebe. The content of the letter was to advise
Eskom GCEO on how the Rothschild’s should be appointed to advise and consult on
how privatizing Eskom could be achieved. In essence, the Rothschild’s were writing a
specification on how they should be appointed, in a clandestine fashion, in order to
privatize Eskom. This is something we regard as befitting the culture of corruption and
state capture, to which the champions of the New Dawn present themselves as a breath
of fresh air. But quite frankly, immediately after Vuyani Jarana’s resignation, the SAA
board meetings swiftly moved to the Rothschild’s offices. Media houses and the
champions of the New Dawn are silent like a church mouse on this scandalous, corrupt
relationship. If it had been Saxonworld and the Gupta’s, which served a different corrupt
class interest, we would have been faced with competing headlines.

The unions remain united in the demand for Thandeka Mgoduso, Martin Kingston and
Peter Tshisevhe to resign in the interests of SAA and the South African public as a
whole. These three individuals do not have the interests of SAA at heart. They are not
interested in a viable SAA. In fact, Thandeka Mgoduso in particular has been interfering
in the daily operations of the airline. She has no interest in the profitability of SAA. Her
goal is to ensure that it is sold off piece by piece to cronies of the ANC elite, which in
this case are the Rothschild’s. In fact, these three constitute a permanent “weak link”
within SAA, whose mission and task is to further the aims for wholesale privatization.
The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni acted recklessly as demonstrated when he
publicly said that if it was his money, he would not put a cent in the SAA turnaround
strategy. Quite frankly, such statements constitute nothing less than to sabotage the
genuine effort and contribution that Vuyani Jarana put together to turnaround our SOE.
As unions, we are more than convinced and we demand that these three individuals
must resign from the SAA board, as in our view, they are not championing the interests
of SAA. In fact, they are in the same WhatsApp group with those in government who
think that SAA can be auctioned off for nothing.

NUMSA and SACCA are making a clarion call to all workers at SAA across all nine
provinces, from cleaners to baggage handlers, Air chefs, security, ticket sales check in
staff, cabin crew and pilots, to stand together because united we stand and divided we
fall. The momentary challenge of every worker at SAA, as there is no life after death, is
to stand together and fight to defend the current turnaround strategy and demand that
the current three board members who have no interest in the current turnaround
strategy must leave the board. We also demand from government that they must fund
the turnaround strategy and give us a new board to support the turnaround strategy.

Key among our demands is that President Cyril Ramaphosa must intervene and engage
his ministers. Our position is that Vuyani Jarana must be brought back to execute the
current turnaround strategy. NUMSA and SACCA is very clear that we have our backs
against the wall. If the current sabotage of the turnaround strategy and Vuyani Jarana
succeeds, workers must be under no illusion – the next step is privatization championed
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by the Rothschild’s, which will double the cost of airfare. Workers will lose their jobs en
masse through retrenchments. If after exhausting all avenues of persuading
government to support the current turnaround strategy and to bring Jarana back, as
unions, we will be left with no option but to embark on an indefinite strike action until our
demands are met, and the result will unfortunately ground our national airline.

It is a fact that the problems at SAA have nothing to do with workers. Employees at the
airline give of their best every day and they continue to work very hard to give the best
service and customer experience. Workers have been leading the charge in exposing
corruption and mismanagement at the airline. Some have even been fired for having the
guts to expose these unsavory practices. Were it not for their bravery, then those
implicated in corruption like Musa Zwane, the former acting CEO of SAA, and Phumeza
Nhantsi the former CFO, would never have been exposed. We salute members of the
working class.

The board has requested an extra 7 days in order to deal with the demands we have
tabled in our memorandums, and we have agreed to grant them extra time. However,
they must not take us for granted. Whilst they deliberate, we will continue to mobilize on
the ground in preparation for the possibility of the mother of all strikes in aviation if this
board continues to ignore the demand to take the necessary steps to #SaveSAA.

Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!

Issued by SACCA AND NUMSA

Irvin Jim
NUMSA General secretary
And
Christopher Shabangu
SACCA Deputy President

For more information, please contact:

Phakamile Hlubi-Majola
NUMSA National Spokesperson
0833767725