‘SAA Not Too Big To Fail’ –Pravin Gordhan

New York — The government has signalled that it is going to take a hardline approach to its cash-strapped national airline as labour unions prepared to strike over pay and job cuts, forcing the carrier to cancel almost all its flights over the next two days.

“If some tough decisions need to be made, we’ll make them,” public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said in a speech at a conference in New York on Thursday. SAA is “not too big to fail.”

Two unions representing more than 3,000 staff at SAA have said they will go on strike on Friday to protest the carrier’s failure to meet their pay demands and plans to fire 944 employees.

The two sides held last-minute talks on Thursday in an effort to make a deal, but the labour groups rejected