In the real world, it is not that easy to spend money you don't have. Lenders want to see business plans, cash-flow projections, proof of earnings, evidence that any cash they advance will be returned with interest. Such formalities do not appear to exist in the through-the-looking-glass world of SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni, who since she took the helm of the airline in 2009 has transformed a profit of several hundred million rand a year into a loss for 2013/14 of R2.59-billion - and still thinks she can keep spending.SAA has received more than R30-billion in government bailouts, loan guarantees and grants since 2007, but Myeni's latest plea to the Treasury is for a R1.6-billion down-payment to Airbus to buy new planes instead of leasing them. The leasing deal was poised to save SAA's financial hide before Myeni abruptly amended it last September, prompting Airbus to back out on "ethical" grounds.Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile has written to SAA to bluntly warn it that there is no more money to pay the airline's bills and its proposed R5-billion plane purchase is illegal.Don't hold your breath though: a year ago, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said there would be no more bailouts. Three months later he handed over another R6.5-billion.The sorry saga of SAA is mirrored by dismal performance at other parastatals - PetroSA, the SABC, the SA Post Office and of course Eskom spring readily to mind - but Myeni, who is also the chairwoman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation and a close friend of the president, seems to be a special case.Tales of her untouchability are legion and she is even said to have engineered the departure of Malusi Gigaba as public enterprises minister in May last year, after their relationship broke down.Can Gigaba's successor, Lynne Brown, end Myeni's financial flights of fancy or will taxpayers keep carrying this excess baggage?..