SAA may not be able to pay November salaries

Julian Herzog via Wikimedia Commons

We saw the same bomb burst at Denel earlier this year, but it seems state-owned companies don’t learn from each other’s crises.

UASA asks: "What is SAA doing with the billions of rand it until recently received from the South African taxpayer?"

If this is a tactic from SAA and the Department of Public Enterprises to end the strike, it is not fair to scare employees into going back to work by threatening non-payment of salaries.

Gordhan warned earlier this year that other SOEs would follow in Denel’s footsteps with similar conditions and challenges, and with banks hesitant to come to the rescue, strong leadership will have to make the difference.

This was confirmed by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu when he reported the national and provincial AGSA audit outcomes yesterday.

Not one of the 14 SOEs audited by AGSA managed to obtain a clean audit in the worst audit outcomes for SOEs ever.

Countless turnaround plans over the years had no impact on the running of SOEs, mainly because of executives coming and going and weak monitoring and oversight in the companies.

UASA is most concerned about the situation in which SAA’s workers, and those at other SOEs, now find themselves.