Minister of mineral resources & energy, Gwede Mantashe, believes that South African Airways is an airline for the elite and should be sold.<\/p>\n
Speaking at an ANC birthday event on Saturday (8 February), Mantashe said the airline did not benefit the working class, reports the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n “You can give SAA to anyone to run it \u2026 it is not flying the working class. The only ones who are ferrying the working class are the buses and the taxis. If we were giving this money to the buses, taxis and trains, you would have a case,”\u00a0 he said.<\/p>\n “If SAA wants to survive, it must make money to survive. If it can\u2019t, it must be closed down. If there is a businessperson who can run it, they must take it.”<\/p>\n Speaking to the paper, Mantashe said he was ‘not contradicting his party position but pointing out facts’.<\/p>\n “We can\u2019t throw R2 billion every month to SAA, we have given R3.2 billion in December \u2026 but still they can\u2019t survive. It\u2019s a travesty of justice,” he said.<\/p>\n Route cancellations<\/strong><\/p>\n