Government urged to direct SAA rescue funds to vaccine resource

South Africa’s political opposition is urging the country’s finance minister, Tito Mboweni, to abandon the R10b ($680m) funding plan to restructure South African Airways and plough the capital into a vaccination programme. The Democratic Alliance has written to Mboweni claiming that the government should “divert” the SAA allocation to procuring vaccines against the coronavirus outbreak. According to the Democratic Alliance the R10b funding package could acquire some 23m doses of the vaccine, enough for 40% of the country’s population. It has accused the main governing party, the ANC, of “skewed” fiscal priorities, claiming that the vaccine funding has come from the Solidarity Fund – a rapid-response organisation established to combat the pandemic, funded by donations which have amounted to some R3.2b. “Why is the ANC choosing an airline for the elite over a vaccine for the many?” the opposition queries, adding that it has also written to parliament’s appropriations committee asking for public hearings on whether South African citizens want the SAA budget re-allocated. While the government is still intending to press ahead with a restructuring of SAA in 2021, it has been attempting to resolve conflict among unions over unpaid salaries as well as a dispute with cockpit crew representatives over conditions of employment in the new carrier.<br/>