Buy a lot more than tickets with R23m

I was one of a group of 100 staff retrenched from SAA in January 2008, "Cash-strapped Eskom , SAA splurge on tickets" (July 4).

We were told the airline was in serious financial difficulties and that if it didn't reduce its staff complement significantly it would not survive; in December 2008 SAA spent R23-million on World Cup tickets. After 20 years of doing my best to provide loyal and professional service (and loving working with passengers, especially all the interesting tourists) without one iota of recognition or appreciation from management, I try to believe I am better off unemployed.

It is just over two years since then, and what strikes me as interesting, and ironic, in this article, is that R23-million spent on a couple of days of kissing-up, shmoozing and being seen with the rich and famous would have kept all 100 of us employed for two years, working our butts off to keep tens of thousands of tourists and frequent flyers satisfied with the airline on a daily basis.