SACP: Mantashe’s Utterances On SAA ‘Disgraceful’, ‘Ill-informed’

Charles Molele

THE South African Communist Party has launched a scathing attack on Minerals and Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe following his remarks that the South African Airways should be sold to private buyers if it cannot generate profit for itself.

“For a minister of State, like comrade Gwede, to speak literally about one particular airline when he is a minister of the State… it’s just disgraceful,” SACP’s first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila told News24 on Monday.

“His views in this regard are extremely ill-informed, completely ill-informed.”

Mantashe, the ANC’s national chairperson and former chairperson of the SACP, told a reporter at the ANC’s 108^th birthday celebrations in Komga, Eastern Cape, that if SAA is not performing, then it must be sold.

He also said if SAA wanted to survive, it should start to make a profit and stand on its own. Otherwise, it should be closed down or taken