Inside the SAA battle: Throwing toys and bugging boardrooms

As turmoil continues over the future of South African Airways, the South African Cabin Crew Association and the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa have linked the resignation of SAA’s CEO to a privatisation agenda and state capture. “‘We want to be upfront that we have always understood that there has been an agenda to privatise the SOEs and SAA is not immune to this,’ the statement said, while also seeking to link Gordhan to what it said is a Rothschild agenda to privatise SOEs. It also said: ‘What has consistently strengthened this belief is that in all SOEs, if Rothschild is not directly involved in the boards, it acts as consultants and/or advisers. The big question, therefore, is: how is its meddling in the affairs of SOEs any different from the previous meddling of the Guptas, which the country is still recovering from?’”