It’s been a week of meetings over meetings — between airline officials and the unions, between the unions and government, between the government and the airline. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) had demanded an 8% pay rise and wanted to halt plans to cut over 900 jobs of the airline. On Friday, November 22, the unions accepted South African Airway’s (SAA) offer of a 5.9% wage increase ending the week-long deadlock. The airline had argued that it could not meet the demands of the unions, and might not have been able to maintain the status quo if the strike continued. “We may not have enough cash to pay salaries at the end of the month,” SAA board member Martin Kingston told the Reuters news agency. Many economists believe that the airline, which hasn’t produced financial statements for the past two years, is practically insolvent. Read more: South African unemployment rate hits 10-year record high Tessa Dooms, a political analyst and development consultant, believes that instead of loading off its problems on its service staff, the airline could look more at its internal structure. The problem is the income inequality, said Dooms in an interview…