Help us end SAA bailouts once and for all

Make it loud and clear that it is morally wrong to sink money into a failing airline when so many South African families are suffering.

Please send the below-drafted letter to the CEO of your bank, urging them to stop providing the bridging finance that secures South African Airways (SAA) loans.

Dear Chief Executive Officer,

As an active citizen and a customer, I write to you to request that the bank offers no further loans or financial support to South African Airways (SAA).

Loans by major banks to SAA in the past have been guaranteed by the government. These loans would never ordinarily be granted to any other company in similar financial ruin and with a similar record of mismanagement. Yet loans are extended to SAA only because they are guaranteed by bailouts paid by the South African public – including me.

This is an arrangement in which the public always loses – while the bank, the government, and SAA win at our expense.

South Africa faces an unprecedented economic crisis, brought on through years of poor policy, and compounded by one of the world’s longest lockdowns. Millions have families have lost their income and livelihoods.

Public services are also taking strain. Teachers must teach 45 children and more, nurses are overworked and stressed, doctors are working 24-hour shifts regularly, and police officers often lack the basic equipment they need to do their jobs.

In this time, it is morally wrong to prioritise SAA over the very real present suffering of so many South Africans. Public money should be used carefully to support those who rely on public services the most.

The government’s decision to bail out SAA again, offering a further R10.4 billion after R16 billion this February, is wrong. It should be resisted by all South Africans.

I urge you to reconsider extending loans to failing state-owned entities, especially SAA, simply because the public are forced to guarantee those loans when they inevitably cannot be repaid.

I urge you to take a stand with us.

Send this letter to the CEO of your bank

Your bank’s contact details: