SAA has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons over the last couple of months.

It’s one of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that’s been bleeding the country dry, as it struggles to get it together when it comes to expenditure and top management positions.

Pravin Gordhan did a pretty good job of explaining why the airline is basically in the toilet if you’d like to know more.

If the airline was hoping to rehabilitate its reputation moving forward, recent events in Hong Kong are not doing them any favours.

IOL with this:

Two South African Airways (SAA) flight attendants have been arrested in Hong Kong after they were found with drugs believed to have a street value of about R45-million.

One of them is believed to be part of the Presidential Crew who flew with President Cyril Ramaphosa to Geneva last year.

Not a good look. The flight attendants were apparently busted during an operation targeting drug trafficking through staff and passenger channels at Hong Kong International Airport.

“A 39-year-old woman was arrested at a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel on Monday (September 23) just after just over 12 kilos of the drug was found in two black plastic bags the day before by airport customs.

“A further six kilos was found in another black plastic bag on Tuesday (September 24), leading to the arrest of a 35-year-old man,” the websites reports.

SAA’s Tlali Tlali confirmed the arrests, saying their cabin crew employees were detained by the country’s customs officials on 23 and September 24 on suspicion of drug trafficking charges.

The two SAA employees were part of crews on two separate flights between Joburg and Hong Kong on September 22 and 24.

“A 39-year-old woman was arrested at a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel on Monday (September 23) just after just over 12 kilos of the drug was found in two black plastic bags the day before by airport customs.

“A further six kilos was found in another black plastic bag on Tuesday (September 24), leading to the arrest of a 35-year-old man,” the websites reports.

SAA’s Tlali Tlali confirmed the arrests, saying their cabin crew employees were detained by the country’s customs officials on 23 and September 24 on suspicion of drug trafficking charges.

SAA wants you to know that they don’t condone criminal activity (any longer – I’m looking at you, Dudu Myeni).

“SAA would equally like to emphasise that the airline remains intolerant of any criminality by any one of its employees. The course of action the company may pursue will be informed by the company policy and the outcomes of the cases currently in court.”

Also, we glossed over that bit about how one of the arrested people was part of the presidential crew…

There are allegations that the woman is also part of the presidential crew and accompanies President Cyril Ramaphosa on flights as required. She was allegedly part of the crew that were in the flight that flew Ramaphosa to Geneva last year.

A source with information on how the Presidential Crew gets chosen said: “They are handpicked by SAA and are subjected to extra security clearance.  As they are not required all the time, they do other flights as well.”

While this hasn’t been confirmed and a trial is pending, SAA might want to give their background check system a once over before making any more cabin crew decisions.

[source:iol]