At their virtual meeting centre on Addis Abba, the ministers accepted that the immediate priority must be the health and humanitarian aspects of the battle.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni was one of co-chairs of the second virtual meeting of his African peers on the COVID 19 pandemic.

The call for a $100-billion immediate assistance package grabs the headlines.

The ministers say debt relief from bilateral, multilateral and commercial partners could be coordinated with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union.

Since it will take the world economy between 24 and 36 months to recover from the lockdown to curb the pandemic, the debt relief to Africa should be spread over two to three years.

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The gathering of the world’s richest leaders will focus heavily on Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian sailors in neutral water between their countries.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, who’ll attend a meeting of G20 peers, and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu will accompany President Cyril Ramaphosa in Argentina on Friday and Saturday.

South Africa’s the only African member of the G20 that encompasses 85% of global GDP, 80% of world trade and two thirds of the earth’s population.

The South African leader will host a summit of BRICS leaders on the fringes of the G20 gathering.

South Africa hands over the chair of BRICS to Brazil at the beginning of 2019.

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There’s a message for flat-broke South African Airways: hang in there!

It runs in parallel with Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan’s warning that the airline must clean out corruption if it hopes to survive.

And it supersedes the call by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that that company, which has not made a profit since 2011, must go to the wall.

The latter is perfectly right in saying no bank or enterprise would get involved with SAA in its current financial state.

But Mboweni’s been repudiated by President Cyril Ramaphosa because, he says, closing the airline would necessitate immediate repayment of its R22 billion debt. This would enormously damage the fiscus.

There’s speculation that Ramaphosa’s remarks have turned his new finance minister into a lame duck: a political has-been who is allowed to say what he wants because he  is only serving his time until after next year’s election.

In fact, Mboweni might have been directed to throw a stone into the bush to see what reaction he could provoke from SAA staff and trade unions who have a veritable bottle of bitter pills to swallow if survival is the option.

These range from exposing the corruption within their ranks to accepting marginal salary increases at best.

My introductory message is based on African aviation predictions.

If SAA can survive it can pick itself up on the approaching boom in African air travel.

IATA figures show the increase in air traffic between sub-Saharan Africa and China will run at 11% over the next decade which will place it among the fastest growing routes on the planet.

Projected traffic between South Africa and China is pretty much in line with this.

China is projected to buy 7690 new aircraft by 2037 with a staggering price tag of $1,2 trillion.

This makes the contest between Airbus and Boeing  for sales to China the most interesting aviation battleground.

US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is doing Boeing no favours  in this dogfight.

Just this week, Airbus executives are in Beijing talking about the sale of 180 Airbus A320s at price of $18 billion dollars.

If it does get to contest the skies tomorrow, SAA will face new competition.

As US voters cast their ballots in the midterm elections, the Airbus 330-800, which will be the warhorse in that battle, made its maiden flight in Toulouse.

The wide-bodied liner with a capacity of 257 passengers is powered by Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines that are quieter than their predecessors and 14% more fuel efficient.

Air Mauritius, Air Senegal and RwandAir have firmed up their orders for the new aircraft.

The nascent Uganda Air has signed a memorandum of understanding for two A330-800s.

Nigeria that has taken an on-off approach to reinstating a national carrier could add to the competition

However, there is plenty for everyone. 

The dearth of road and rail infrastructure makes air travel between African countries –  and particularly the  movement of perishable goods – indispensable as their population grows to 1,4 billion.

Ethiopian Airlines, which has a fleet more than twice the size of SAA’s, will indubitably remain the continental giant and an example the South African carrier should emulate wherever possible.

It’s major competitors are not SAA, Kenya Airways and Egyptair but Qatar, Emirates and Turkish Airlines.

Its growth has come from a protected regulatory  framework, the cross subsidization of airport revenue and concessionary fees at Ethiopian airports.

Competitive pricing has enabled it to make the frankly substandard Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa a hub competing with Singapore, Istanbul and Dubai.

The bulk of Ethiopia Airlines’ planes are wide-bodied liners from the Boeing and Airbus range. 

The fleet is constantly updated with planes being  exchanged every six-and-a-half years.

Somehow SAA has to change its message from “ah, if only”  to becoming the Little Red Engine saying: “I think I can.”

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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.

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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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