Mboweni asks Twitter whether South Africa needs a national airline

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni attracted mixed reactions on Twitter when he posted a tweet asking whether South Africa needs a national airline.

Mboweni’s tweet was posted on Sunday night, following Fitch and Moody’s downgrading of South Africa’s credit ratings last week.

The minister first asked followers “Ok. What should we do on SAA?” late Sunday night. Shortly after, he followed with “Ok. Do we need a National Airline? Maybe that’s the question? Is it?”.

Ok. What should we do on SAA?

— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) November 22, 2020

Ok. Do we need a National Airline? Maybe that’s the question? Is it?

— Tito Mboweni (@tito_mboweni) November 22, 2020

However, Mboweni received mixed reactions considering R10.5 billion was recently allocated to South African Airways (SAA) for business rescue — an announcement the minister made during his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in October.

The minister continued to ask questions on Twitter regarding the national airline. These included whether private airlines could fill the market gap if SAA no longer existed.

On his first two tweets, Mboweni received over 3000 replies in total.

Some defended the need for SAA, while others questioned why Mboweni was posting this discussion on Twitter.

Others pointed to the recent funds allocated to SAA, while some users called for government to sell or privatise the airline.

You can see a few of the reactions to Mboweni’s tweets below:

https://twitter.com/NtuthukoMbhama2/status/1330602608374013956

https://twitter.com/Ori_Debig_Beats/status/1330604359009378310

https://twitter.com/iamkoshiek/status/1330609931872063494

You don’t think that perhaps you should have asked this question before you gave the R10,5bn?

— Carol Paton (@politicsblahbla) November 22, 2020

Feature image: Memeburn

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