Irish joke is on clueless Ryanair

Here’s an Irish joke for you: What whines self-righteously as it flies into clouds of controversy? Answer: Ryanair lugdiens (translation for those in Dublin: Ryanair airline).

The Irish airline is still pursuing its idiotic decision to “screen” all South African passport-holders getting on its flights by forcing them to answer a general knowledge quiz about South Africa – in Afrikaans. It claims this is because so many South Africans are travelling on “fake” passports to and from the UK that they need to do this to stop themselves being fined by authorities in Britain.

Not surprisingly, the British authorities, as well as those in Ireland, have denied that the “test” is a requirement for their immigration formalities.

ALSO READ: WATCH: South Africans laugh their way through Ryanair’s Afrikaans ‘citizenship test’

What Ryanair seems not to know is that, to get into Britain, or anywhere in the European Union, for example, you need to produce a visa. And anyone who has been through that agonising process knows how thorough this is – short of requiring a saliva sample, the expensive visa issuing requires just about all other information about you. That would make it nearly impossible to fake.

So why, then? Our best bet: A disgruntled ex-Saffa working for Ryanair who wants to punish those who stayed behind…?