Congress of South African Trade Unions says it is ready to take its suggestion to have South African Airways (SAA) partially privatised to the alliance meeting this weekend.
Meanwhile, trade union Solidarity has served court papers on SAA and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni as well as Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan asking that the airline be placed on business rescue.
If Solidarity’s application is successful, it will be the first time that a state enterprise will be placed on business rescue. This means that the court can appoint a business rescue practitioner with comprehensive powers to rescue the airline.
SAA has reinstated its domestic, regional and international flights after being hit by a week-long strike by staff who are members of trade union Numsa and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA).
Last week, Numsa, SACCA and SAA signed a deal to end the strike.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla, “So any private sector involvement would be toxic but looking at an airline, we also cannot allow workers’ money to be pumped into an airline which doesn’t really benefit the poor. All of what we are going to end up doing if you go back to the statement of the alliance is that we are going to have a task team that is going to make sure that whatever we come out with is a unifying position that allows us to actually help us to move forward instead of engaging in never-ending debates.”
