Fin24 reports that two of the key unions at South African Airways (SAA) have welcomed that the struggling state-owned airline has secured R3.5bn in funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.  

They pointed out that if the national flag carrier had been allowed to collapse, some 10,000 workers would have suffered.  "The funding has been criticised by some because of the many bailouts which SAA has received in the past.  We do not want an SAA which is dependent on bailouts.  We want an SAA which is viable," the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) said in a joint statement on Monday.  On Tuesday last week, the airline's joint business rescue practitioners announced that passengers could continue flying SAA seeing that the required funding had been secured.  The two unions pointed out on Monday that it would be "extremely reckless and negligent" for the state to allow SAA or any other state-owned entity to collapse.  "Workers should not be expected to suffer job losses because of the corruption, mismanagement and looting of the board and the executive management of SAA,' they noted.  The unions reiterated that the business rescue practitioners should investigate the airline's procurement contracts, where they claimed significant savings could be had.  They said they would be meeting the practitioners again later this week.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at Fin24

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