He was speaking to staff of South African Airways following last week’s assertion by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that the the loss-making airline should be closed down.

Pravin Gordhan says eight months into the corruption-fighting Presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa, the staff of  SAA is still protecting corrupt colleagues.

Gordhan does not agree with Mboweni  that South African taxpayer should not have to finance an airline the country can’t afford.

Mboweni has drawn flak for his remarks at a New York investor conference from the executive of the ruling African National Congress and the unions representing the airline’s 8000 employees.

Gordon tells the employees if they want SAA to survive they must clean out the corruption that has plagued it for years.

“One of the problems they have is  bad decisions. But they have also been badly affected by corruption in the past. This is a matter we have to deal with and expose. We still have a situation today where key parts of an aircraft were, for example, bought at a 50 to 100% premium through middle people rather than buying directly from the original equipment manufacturer. We cannot continue. On the one hand they say we want a bail out and on the other hand we want to carry on feeding pockets that should not be fed,” said Gordhan.

Head of the  SAA pilots association Grant Back welcomes Gordhan’s inspirational speech to them.

He recognizes that they will have to fight corruption and says the airline is in desperate need of  dynamic leadership.

The pilots hope the whole board of SAA will back the chief executive Vuyani Jarana’s turn around strategy to end seven consecutive loss-making years.

The post Pravin Gordhan says cleaning out SAA is essential for its survival appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They recognize the need to fight corruption in the airline.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan distances himself from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s call for South African Airways to be closed down. 

But he’e taken to task SAA staff for not exposing the corruption that has brought the airline to its knees.

Following Gordhan’s briefing to the SAA staff in Kempton Park, SAA Pilots Association head Grant Back welcomed the minister’s energetic and inspirational speech.

Back agrees with Gordhan that corruption has to be tackled.

He says SAA desperately needs dynamic leadership and he calls on the board of the airline to back chief executive Vuyani Jarana’s turnaround strategy.

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