SAA must be sold off: Maimane
The DA believes South African Airways (SAA) is beyond the point of saving and must be sold off.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane and the party's shadow deputy finance minister, Alf Lees briefed media on the ongoing crisis at the national carrier.
It's still unclear how the airline will pay off its R6.9 billion debt repayments due on Saturday.
For almost two decades SAA has relied on government bailouts and guarantees for its survival.
It's now up to the national treasury to source another R10 billion for the airline in the next 48 hours.
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The DA maintains SAA is a bottomless pit into which government continues to pour resources that should be going to the poor.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane says: "Why should poor people be financing rich people to fly? When you think about ordinary South Africans who at this point would have been able to get 93 000 houses. If you look at it from a student's point of view we would have been able to finance 186 000 NSFAS bursaries."
Maimane says the only way forward for SAA is to be sold off.
"We must release government's stranglehold over SAA by finding a buyer for SAA immediately and ensure that there is an exercise of good governance that takes place at SAA so that ultimately the airline is a profitable one and can be sold off.
"We are asking finance minister Malusi Gigaba to in fact put the airline on business rescue. It cannot be right that South Africans fund Dudu Myeni's enterprise. We cannot continue funding this failing national carrier.