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Johannesburg - Turn SA Airways around in five years or privatise it, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.
DA public enterprises spokeswoman Natasha Michael said the latest turnaround strategy to be introduced by the national carrier should be its last.
"[It] represents the airline’s last chance to stabilise its operations after nearly two decades of wasting public funds."
"If this fails, the only viable option left will be to privatise," said Michael.
Her call for privatisation came after SAA's acting chairwoman Dudu Myeni told government officials on Tuesday that SAA had a 20-year turnaround plan for the airline.
Myeni said the plan possibly included cutting some flight routes.
Responding to questions about why the latest plan would be more credible than previous ones, SAA acting CEO Nico Bezuidenhout said the latest "holistic" strategy aimed to achieve "sustainable" business.
"We cannot continue to come back looking for further capitalisation. If nothing else, it's embarrassing," he said.
Bezuidenhout was referring to an incident where the national carrier reportedly received a R550m bank "facility" to cover fuel and other short-term commitments last month.
Michael said the 20-year plan was too lengthy and said improvement should be seen in at least five years.
"Enough is enough. The airline's executives should not find refuge in the broad timescale of the latest addition to its plan archive," she said.
"It should not take 20 years to turn SAA around. While we acknowledge that miracles cannot be performed overnight, marked improvements should be visible in the medium term."
SAA has tried nine multi-billion rand turnaround strategies in the last 13 years, and recorded losses of R14.7bn in the past decade.
Besides its financial woes, SAA has also faced a managerial blow with top officials resigning or being suspended.
Bezuidenhout, who is the CEO of Mango, was appointed acting CEO of SAA earlier this month, after the previous CEO, Vuyisile Kona, was suspended.
Kona had replaced CEO Siza Mzimela in October 2012, after the airline reported a R1.25bn operating loss for the year.
