In a bid to save costs and stay afloat amidst the financial mess at the national carrier, it has been reported that South African Airways (SAA) will be getting rid of certain routes and some of its planes.
City Press reported on Sunday that the airline planned on cutting flights on the profitable route between Johannesburg and Cape Town, cutting flights to certain central African destinations and getting rid of 10 planes of out the 50 that they have.
According to the report a source said: "The airline is going to make enormous sacrifices to try to ensure SAA's survival, but none of it will matter as long as [the airline's chairperson] Dudu Myeni remains involved. She has a destructive influence on the airline and the staff."
Some of the African destinations that will be reportedly suspended as of October are Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi, Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo, Kigali in Rwanda and Libreville in Gabon.
This week a confidential Cabinet memorandum has revealed that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba plans to sell government's stake in Telkom to fund a massive bailout for the embattled SAA without consultation or a socio-economic impact assessment.
In the document, which HuffPost SA has seen, and is signed off by Gigaba, he admits that his plan to give SAA a further R7.8 billion bailout was not finalised in consultation with the economic, employment and infrastructure directors-general due to urgency.