More time for the rescue of SA Express welcomed

Fundraising for the rescue is being led by venture capitalist Chris Hart and will involve some equity crowdfunding. The aim is to take over the former state-run monolith, to give it a bright, new, commercially viable, future.

“SA Express is currently in the headlines for all the wrong reasons,” said Chris Hart, who is the Executive Chairman of Global Impact Investments, which is leading the fundraising efforts to allow the relaunch SA Express as a viable, commercial business.

“This airline was polluted by state capture, as is shown in the first section of the Zondo Commission report – when instead of funds being used to keep it operating, they were diverted to corrupt individuals.

“That was then, but this is now, and all members of the rescue team are confident that if it can be efficiently, safely, and ethically run, this vital element of SA’s transport infrastructure can be saved – and it will fly again.”

The rainbow consortium aims to turn SA Express around, using the remaining resources and manpower as the building blocks for a reborn regional airline, which will initially launch its services within South Africa, to expand in time into the wider Southern African region.

“We hear a lot from the government on the imperative of expanding infrastructure to better incorporate the regions into the national economy, but the combined menaces of corruption and Covid have had a devastating impact on the airline industry,” said Hart.

“This cannot be accepted without a fightback, and we offer a new promise of regional economic revival and development if we can expand the movement of people and goods to and from the more remote outposts of South Africa.

“Of course, this has to be done on a commercial basis, but we do have a sound business plan. There can be no doubt that the principles and commercial practices of the private sector will succeed where the captured state has failed.”

Hart admits that at a time when the transport industry globally is in deep trouble, cynics will suggest that it is lunacy to try to revive an airline with the troubled record of SA Express.

“However, demand is lifting as we slowly see the economy opening up, South Africa needs better transport infrastructure, with improved links to the region, and we will extract what is good from a failed airline and take it to the skies again. If it needs re-branding and a re-launch, so be it,” he said.

“We can take the skeleton of this business and use it as the foundation for a new, viable airline – avoiding the mistakes that led to its demise.”

He warned that if SA Express were to be allowed to disappear, jobs, economic activity and the potential for boosting economic growth would also be destroyed. SA Express is poised to be part of the economic revival of South Africa’s more remote towns and rural areas, providing vital links with our metropolitan areas.

“This can work, and we will make it work,” he concluded. “The people of South Africa deserve a happier and more prosperous 2022, after the recent Covid-ravaged years.

“A re-born SA Express is not the entire solution, but we can, and we will make it part of our country’s economic revival.

“Something good must rise from the ashes of state capture.”