The IFP expresses outrage at the SAA CEO Khaya Ngqula's personal extravagance amid the embattled airline's attempts to cut expenditure.

Ngqula was appointed last October to balance the books of the national carrier, which made a record net loss of R8-billion in 2004.

Instead, Ngqula has been running up executive bills flying to meetings by private helicopters and staying in posh overseas hotels.

What the SAA termed as "normal business practices", has, so far, cost the South African taxpayer a staggering R500, 000 on top of the CEO's remuneration and perks.

The IFP is convinced that the SAA's disease runs deeper than Ngqula's personal extravagance. "Such are the virtues of state ownership. It is hard to imagine private shareholders tolerating such behaviour on the part of a CEO," said Dr Woods.

Mr Bekker also said:

"Ngqula's conduct serves as a microcosm of the government's drive for black economic empowerment. It is all about a high-flying life of the oligarchy at the expense of the masses.

"The ANC government crowned its appointment of Ngqula and his conduct when Alec Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry, dismissed the CEO's behaviour as a 'non-issue'.

"The ANC's ideas about the corporate code of conduct, as shown by their tolerance of Ngqula, hardly live up to the creed of the man in the street.

"The IFP wishes to point out that the frugality the SAA's CEO strives to impose on his employees, and, by proxy, on his passengers, begins at home."