A million reasons to ground SAA

South African Airways (SAA) has, yet again, thumbed its nose at the rules which should govern the financial reporting of state-owned enterprises.

The airline, which has sucked up billions in taxpayer bailouts over the years, is more than five months late with its announcement of some key figures in its financial statements for the year ended March 2025.

That is in line with its tardiness in the past, as its funds were milked by both corruption and incompetence.

But what struck us was this line: That its cash and cash equivalents “remain strong” at R1.96 million. And that it has “equity” of R6.649 million.

That turns out to be a probable error from their PR people, because they don’t know the difference between million and billion.

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But one wonders who is supervising the creche, then, because someone senior should have checked.

That incompetence wouldn’t fill us with any comfort if we were thinking of buying the airline.

Oh – no-one is?

While SAA is opening and reopening routes and growing traffic, it is not producing “real profit” – incompetent press release aside – and it may only be a matter of time before it goes cap in hand, again, to Treasury.

Isn’t it time it was grounded for good?

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