South African Airways Relaunches on Thursday After Being Grounded for Over a Year

• South Africa's state-run airline will be back in the skies starting Thursday morning, 23 September
• The South African Airline will now be run by a workforce of 1 000 employees after 4 000 workers were retrenched
• Flights will be operational between Cape Town and Johannesburg and other African countries have been added as destinations for SAA flights

JOHANNESBURG - Starting Thursday morning, 23 September, flights operated by South African Airways have resumed operation after being grounded for almost 18 months.

Flights were halted because of the financial constraints the state-run airways had been experiencing for several years and was put under business rescue since last year.

According to SABC News, flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg are now operational. Flights to other African countries such as Ghana, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Zambia are also operational.

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It had been initially reported that the airline would only fly three times a day between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Flights to Harare, Lusaka and Maputo will operate daily while flights to Ghana and the Republic of Congo will only be operational for times a week.

The airline had to go through restructuring, which resulted in 4 000 workers being retrenched by the company. The airline is now being run by a team of 1 000 employees.

According to EWN, SAA financial challenges were exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic.

In June, the Department of Public Enterprises announced that Takatso Consortium would acquire 51% of SAA, which would lessen the burden on the South African government needing to bail out the airline when facing financial issues, however, the deal has not been made official yet.

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Takatso Consortium is said to have not been involved in SAA returning to the skies.

SAA: Mzansi divided over SAA, #SAAPrivatised debate starts on social media

Briefly News previously reported that the Department of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan announced on Friday that an agreement has been met by Cabinet permitting the ownership of SAA through a partnership between the government and a consortium equity partner.

A consortium made up of Global Aviation and Harith, collectivity known as Takatso, will hold 51% of the company after investing an initial R3 billion, and government 49%.

Mzansi is sceptical about the 'privatisation' off SAA and fixated on state capture

Mzansi took to social media to share their reactions to the news of what they are calling the privatisation of SAA.

@kamo_marven:

"People complaining under #SAAPrivatised and praising Dudu Myeni are just blind, Dudu Myeni sold one lucrative route from SA to Mumbai to the Guptas. You can't come even with one idea of how the government should save SAA, the government has been injecting cash into SAA for years."

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@velingobese_ZA:

"The insults against Dudu Myeni, the judgements by the courts for being a delinquent director were all tricks to sell SAA. The ANC will govern the country with no single SOE. Welcome on board, this is the new dawn #SAAPrivatised"

Source: Briefly News