What The Real Problem Is At Saa
There are many posts on the woes of SAA, and as I have never worked for SAA or the SAAF (I was a Diensplig not a PF Konstabel in the SAP – because it paid better for my available brain power for 3 years in the early 80’s) with a lekker Klippie & Coke (that my Boet sends me) & watching the Rugby & munching on my biltong that I shot during a Moose hunt (I live in Canada now) with my two sons (Flying my own and fully paid for 206) I would like to gooi n lekker klip in die bos. But hey it’s a gossip column so hate it or love it but here goes:
We have to understand that SAA has never made money since its inception simply because it’s not held accountable to make money because the tax payers fund all the shortfalls. SAA needs one simple route to make money and that is to:
1. Level the playing field and hire people because they can do the job, not because they are American, Boers or Blacks and hold them accountable for their jobs.
2. Be absolutely 100% privately owned, not a Para State, Semi State, Quasi State or anything like that.
The level playing field is not just about “Africanization” it’s about the inherent history & philosophy of SAA since its inception. For a start it was always an Air Force old boys flying club, where you went to make better money and have all the Spoorie Advantages of never having to worry about bread in your mouth when your contract was over in the SAAF.
That’s where it got pilots from, in the pre Nat days it hired RAF / SAAF & “i.e. sworn Bloed Sappe” and after the Nats took power it hired SAAF old Boys many of them Broederbonders! Off course within its ranks it always had the “Mak Ingilse & Mak Joodse” faces for the sake of appearances.
From that philosophy came “Africanization”, they are hiring exactly in the same manner that SAA taught them to hire from, i.e. “your own kind”. They also put in the odd “Mak Wit” face in there cadet Program for the sake of appearances. Now we are playing this gigantic cry baby hullabaloo because “Africans” are so unfair. Hell they are not, we taught them, and they are for the sake of transparency and expediency doing exactly the same thing that SAA did after the Nats took power.
Fact of the matter is whether we like it or not the National Airline should never have allowed ex Air Force members in their ranks, because over the years (Second oldest airline in Africa I believe) the poor boy that actually had to pay for his license from day one and then got it after sweating blood and tears for lack of money never really had a fair playing field to enter SAA. Had we helped out the “Civvies” to fly “Civvies” we would have had two very good and different pools or groups of pilots.
Now before we get the ex SAAF contingent cry foul, fact of the matter is when you signed on the dotted line after selection you chose voluntarily to fly for your country, with excellent career prospects. But when the National Airline allowed you to finish your contract and join, the countries pilots suffered heavily because the guy that went up “through the civvy ranks” and actually had to use something called money to learn how to fly was put out of a job for many years.
Let’s thank our heavenly stars that the playing fields are now more level and let’s accept without tears that the SAAF / SAA boys had a good training background, thanks to the tax payers and can now fly for all the other great airlines, if they so choose. Let’s also acknowledge that SAA has gone the “civvy route” and had the balls to take previously disadvantaged kids that want to fly and give them a chance in a cadet scheme. The Nats never had this foresight because they had a pool thanks to the Air Force from which to choose.
So let’s make some figures and see how many ex “well known Air School” kids had wealthy enough daddies (thanks to being Captains in SAA and now other Airlines, courtesy of the SAAF and the Tax Payer) to pay for their Com / then Van & 1900 ratings so they can “pole” at a relatively young age Turbines on contract throughout the world and get time to enter a level playing field in the World’s Aviation market, not just in South Africa.
Now about me, yes I never made the SAAF selection because my mathematics were not “enough” and I never got into SAA, yes it made me very “de moer” in because I was still young and stupid. But I had a thing called brass balls and that was to beg borrow and lend money so that “Oom Colin Campbell” in Pietermaritzburg could take me under his wing in his beloved Cherokees and teach me how to pole. After that I had to write a Comm. (3 times it took me! – because I was stupid according to the SAAF and had to work while I flew). That Comm. Gave me a lowly paid job “when the market” was there so I ended up Poling Piston Pounders over angry skies for very little money.
So please grow up, get used to it, its life, it’s tough and there are very few winners. And “wannabee SAAF & SAA” kids please stop this crying game that your daddies taught you and grow up, there is a way, but it might take more years and a thing called guts. Now that the fields are level for all the population groups in South Africa, use your current opportunities and make the best of them. Trust me they are a lot better than in the 80’s as there are many more 1900’s flying on contract all over the world and very few Cessna 206’s and 310’s being poled alone on contract today.
Today I am still in Aviation, I am content, and I still fly and I make good money. The past is past and the future looks good. As I am pouring another Klippies & Coke & looking at my beautiful wife and two sons at our lovely home with its pool and braai area where I actually sleep every night I will be slaaning lekker dekking and hope to God that my two kids grow up knowing that nothing in this thing called life comes easy and sometimes you might have to work for it, whatever your race may be.