WATCH: Gigaba mathematics divides social media

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday in his first medium-term budget policy statement that National Treasury hoped to raise R3.9 billion by selling a portion of its Telkom shares to bail South African Airways (SAA).

He said he was obliged to liquidate an asset to fund part of the R13.7 billion required to inject R10 billion into SAA and R3.9 billion into the South African Post Office.

SAA will receive a further R4.8 billion from the state’s coffers in the current financial year, he said.

Gigaba said it was important to keep SAA afloat as it played an important role in South Africa’s economy.

“SAA does a lot in terms of employing ten point five thousand people,” he says in a video clip that has been circulating on social media.

Gigaba’s video has caught social media users’ attention, particularly because of the number of employees he said were employed. While some said there was nothing wrong with how he read out 10 500, some said he was taking after President Jacob Zuma, who always has a problem with numbers.

Watch the video:

“I don’t get whats wrong by saying ‘ten point five thousand people’ that 10 500 people, what’s wrong with that?” asked one, while another wrote: “In the same way we don’t say 100.5 million but 100 million and 500 thousand, we don’t say Ten point Five thousand but 10 thousand 500.”

These were some of the comments:

“1 500 = one point five, 9 500= nine point five, 10 500 ten point five.”

“Ten point five WHAT? There’s nothing like Ten Point Five Thousands.”

“What’s wrong with ten point five thousand? Because it can be ten point five million? Nothing wrong at all nguwe o wrong.”

“No wonder it’s going down the drain, got no clue regarding figures. Hard times to come bread to cost 10.5 thousand very soon, as in Zim.”

“So people are saying 10.5m is correct? You can never say 10.5m or 10.5 thousand. Makes no sense at all. The point 5 is only single digit.”

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