On Thursday Solidarity expressed its dissatisfaction with state-owned airline Mango’s business rescue plan, which was only accepted earlier that day.

Under the terms of the plan, SA Airways (SAA) will withdraw from Mango and sell 100% of its shares. According to the trade union, state interference and the implementation of poor business decisions made Mango into another victim on the long list of failed state institutions. Solidarity further argued that the situation would have looked quite different if Mango’s former CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout, had been allowed to restructure the airline and manage it without any interference. “Employees at the airline are now paying the price for the poor decisions of the past made by the government. We are in a situation again where ideology and centralisation take precedence over sound business practices and sound economic decisions. The result is that thousands of people are now without work while such a situation could very well have been prevented,” said Derek Mans, sector coordinator of defence and aviation at Solidarity. With reference to a request from the previous head of Mango to the shareholder to place Mango in business rescue, Mans expressed the belief that “a successful application at that time could have resulted in a very different outcome and could have helped many employees to keep their positions.” He emphasised that the problem with Mango had not been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic “but by the state’s preoccupation with its ideology and centralisation.”

• Read the full original of Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News

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