The South African government has committed itself to yet another huge handout to state-owned South African Airways.
Subsidies for the perennial loss-making airline have already cost taxpayers at least R12 billion (that’s equivalent to about $1.2 billion at current exchange rates) over the past decade, says the Free Market Foundation’s Jasson Urbach. That money “could have been used instead to build approximately 218,000 houses, which would have considerably improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor South Africans who still have no adequate shelter.”
He suggests SAA should be auctioned off to the private sector. That would end the subsidies, immediately provide the government with some funds, and create a vast new source of revenue.
It would, of course, also lead to much improved service to the travelling public, including the more than 8 million foreign tourists who visit South Africa every year.
CopyRight – OnTarget 2013 by Martin Spring
