The Citizen reports that according to SA Airways Pilots Association (Saapa) spokesperson Grant Back, it was regrettable that a government official had resorted to race-baiting and blatantly false accusations against his association.

In a scathing attack on Saapa in an opinion piece on News24, Department of Public Enterprises director-general Kgathatso Tlhakudi had claimed that an agreement between Saapa and SAA was “worse than any job reservation Act of the apartheid era” and it “completely violates a democratic order”. He also claimed that the association’s defence of the “evergreen” agreement, called the regulating agreement, promoted white pilots’ self-interests. Back said the association “and our pilots will not be used as scapegoats for the department-led failure of SAA”. The Democratic Alliance’s Ghaleb Cachalia, shadow minister of public enterprises, demanded Tlhakudi’s immediate suspension in a tweet. “He needs to be hauled over the coals and retract the statement immediately,” Cachalia said. Michael Morris, of the Institute of Race Relations, commented: “This is a cynical exploitation of race. It is unfortunate, imprecise and meaningless. Race is being offered up as an excuse for a shareholder’s inability to negotiate in good faith.” He added: “A pilot is a pilot, no matter what hue.” However, last October Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan emphasised that the new SAA would only have black pilots.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Hein Kaiser at The Citizen

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