For as long as I still pay taxes in South Africa (and I do) I actually am by default a co owner of each and every one of your SAA babies's asses. And for as long as that is the case I will be on the case of SAA to be accountable for my money.
See some guys actually work to get it together and others don't. That's irrelevant, what is very relevant is that for as long as I am a Tax Payer, I am a co owner, and thus by default have the right to know what you do with my money.
You are actually completely wrong. The state is a legal person, represented in a legal sense by an elected government. It owns certain commercial ventures. You as taxpayer actually has no say except to use your vote to get your choice of government elected. You also do not get a say in how tax money is spent, again only by utilising your vote can you have any input in this process.
After you have paid your taxes as is required by law, the money ceases to be yours and belongs to the state. The same way that you don't get to tell Raymond Ackermann how to run his business after you have spent money at his enterprise.
So to sum up. Whether you like the stance of the current government regarding SAA or not, you have no say and can whinge as long as you want. I suggest you canvas a few more votes to get your personal favourite elected to government and you can then badger him, as your representative to change things at SAA.
I am no fan of the current SAA setup, but I work in an industry where we have lots of other challenges. Safety standards in Africa is on the slide and the regulator seems to be unable to tackle the problem. SAA, using their significant resources has been addressing some of these problems and are doing something to help all the pilots in this country. The have used their pilots and aircraft to get GNSS approaches and RNAV routes validated for all of us to use. They have used their commercial muscle to improve facilities at the airports they operate to, all to the advantage of those that follow. Their pilots are well trained and all of the CRM programmes in SA are based on theirs. Their pilots have maintained high operational standards despite being subjected to revolving management intent on raping the company for personal gain.
That the SAA pilots earn huge salaries in the SA context is true, but they have negotiated those salaries without resorting to strike action. If their current management was prepared to negotiate in good faith, the pilots might have had to take a paycut, but as things currently stand - SAA management is putting themselves in a position where the pilots will win the day. Unfortunately management is trying to threaten SAAPA with an empty gun, and they will fail to win significant concessions.
And Jetnut, please don't applaud this post, because I do not agree with you on anything! I have many other mates at SAA though, and I am particularly tired of the taxpayer argument.