We’re praying for better days, say Mango employees

It may seem busy at the OR Tambo International Airport as passengers queue to check-in – however, the offices of Mango and the SA Airlines resemble that of a ghost town with not a soul in sight.

Mlondi Mthethwa was one of 750 employees from Mango who could not return to work on Wednesday after it was announced this week the airline was being placed under business rescue.

“It has been a tough few months, with salary cuts, then full salary, then no salary,” he said, adding he had to rely on his savings to get by.

“Once my savings depleted, I had to rely on credit and family to survive,” Mthethwa said.

He said they were told on Saturday about the new plans and by Tuesday the flights were grounded.

“I feel fatigued, it’s been going on since March 2020 and since then we have fought to keep our doors open,” he said.

Mthethwa, who has been working at the airline for four years, said he was looking for another job. He said the problem was that shareholders were not speaking to them.

“No one knows when we’ll return to work again,” he said.

Constance Tlou, who has been working as a cleaner at the airport for 16 years, said they were also feeling the crunch.

“We went from working six days a week to two days a week,” Tlou said.

She was struggling to make ends meet as she has to raise her late daughter’s child, three.

“I’m getting much less salary, struggling to pay rent, buy porridge and travel here.”

Tlou added that she has to take two taxis to get from her house in Soweto to work and two taxis back home which costs R60 a day. Cemair booking agents sit with wide smiles behind the plastic Covid screens as they book domestic flights.

“I have to say we have been blessed with a lot of passengers and have seen a huge increase in demands in certain routes such as Cape Town,” an agent said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said they initially started with two to three flights a week to Cape Town, which will be increased to four flights a day from next week.

“I don’t know what happened, but since President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke, its insane how much air travel has picked up.”

He said they presume the increased passengers were due to Mango’s business rescue process and Comair not operating, either.

Only three airlines are flying domestically currently, Cemair, Safair and Airlink.

“It is sad. We are like a family here at the airport,” said the agent, adding that it was bad seeing his colleagues struggling, especially those from Mango not being paid their salaries.

“Some of those employees have been with Mango from the very beginning. It’s the same with SA Express a while ago, seeing them stressing about how they were going to pay rent,” he said.

A former SA Express employee who now works as a customer service agent at Cemair said he knows the feeling Mango employees must be going through.

“I sat at home for eight months, with no money and no nothing because of Covid and liquidation,” he said.

Fortunately, his pension fund paid out, which helped him take care of his wife and two children.

“But it’s finished now, it has been draining,” he said.

A Safair pilot who agreed to speak anonymously said it has never been as tough as it is now.

“With all the curfews and travel regulations, the market was shrinking. All of us are flying much less.”

He said he was fortunate to have flown throughout the lockdown except in the hard lockdown.

“We’re praying for better days to come,” he said.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za