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Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka said the ANC sacrificed the future of South African children and the safety of its citizens to try to save something completely unrecoverable.
This followed Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s mid-term budget speech where he said R10.5 billion will be allocated to SAA to help you implement your business rescue plan.
This allocation is in addition to the R16.4 billion allocated during the 2020 medium-term expenditure framework in the February budget to settle debt and guaranteed interest.
This did not sit well with many South Africans, who noted that even Mboweni had previously spoken out against another SAA bailout.
“The ANC has just sacrificed the future of South African children and the safety of its citizens to try once again to save something completely irretrievable,” said Wierzycka.
He said using tax money for education and police is far more sensible than trying to save a bankrupt airline.
DA’s shadow Finance Minister Geordin Hill-Lewis echoed Wierzycka’s comments in a statement on Mboweni’s budget.
“The ANC government has chosen to cut essential services for the public, such as education and policing, to fund another SAA bailout,” Hill-Lewis said.
“This is an immoral and indefensible choice. It amounts to throwing South Africans under the plane to pay SAA. “
He added that Mboweni should have held the line and rejected this bailout, and that the decision shows the ANC’s contempt for poor South Africans.
The Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) called for a public boycott of SAA in disapproval of the SAA bailout.
They said higher education, the national prosecutor’s office (NPA), the police and housing should take priority over SAA.
“The medium-term budget robs the poor to save SAA’s vanity project,” Outa said.
What could the money have been used for
Hill-Lewis noted that SAA’s bailout of R10.5 billion could have been spent on much better things, including:
- One month of additional TERS support for families who have lost income during the closure.
- 440 new community clinics.
- 66,500 new RDP homes.
- 130 new schools.
- 80,000 new teaching degrees or 27,000 new medical graduates.
“We will continue to mobilize against this bailout and ask the public to participate in the budget process to make their voice heard against this,” Hill-Lewis said.
Interview with Geordin Hill-Lewis
Now Read: Tito Mboweni Announces R10.5 Billion SAA Allocation
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