SAA to resume some flights across Africa
South African Airways (SAA) will reinstate flights to six destinations across Africa amid the crippling strike at the national carrier.
Flights to Accra, Lagos, Lusaka, Maputo, Windhoek and Harare will take off from Tuesday, with international flights also now fully operational.
More than 3,000 workers - including cabin crew, technical and ground staff - started striking on Friday to demand higher pay and to protest against restructuring plans involving heavy job losses.
The walkout by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Assocciation (SACCA) forced the cash-strapped flag carrier to cancel more than 300 domestic and regional flights between Friday and Monday.
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The airline's spokesperson Tlali Tlali says SAA decided to reinstate the flights since it has enough workers to operate the aircraft.
"With further monitoring, we will be reinstating - on a limited basis - a number of flights into the region where we'll introduce as of tomorrow flights to six destinations in the African continent.”
Tlali says the intimidation of employees who are not on strike remains an issue.
In one instance, two workers failed to report for duty after they received threats from striking employees.
"The fact there are those who elect to embark on industrial action does not mean they must force those who are not embarking on strike,” says Tlali.
"We need to respect the decision and choices that all our employees are making.”