In a bid to boost dwindling sales, South African Airways (SAA) says it will introduce virginity testing on all its flights to Swaziland. The announcement comes after an official royal Swazi decree to incentivise female virginity.
CEO Monwabisi Kalawe said consumer demands were shifting with the onset of fears of MERS, Ebola and HIV, and the company wanted to dip its fingers into the world of corporate social responsibility.
“Think of it as onboard entertainment of a different type,” Kalawe said.
The campaign would “encourage women to take more responsibility for their hymens”, a statement from SAA read.
Kalawe says SAA was certainly not asking women to not have sex.
“We are just saying they should remain virgins,” the company’s CEO said.
On October 8, the Swazi government said teenage Swazi girls would be paid R200 a month to remain virgins.
When asked about hosting virginity testing for males, SAA said “men were not the ones suffering disproportionately with HIV”.
SAA has been criticised in the past for failing to understand the African market, a perception Kalawe says the company is desperate to turn around.
“We want to be seen as a forward thinking company with core African values,” he said.
Abu O’Well is almost an award-winning satirist with The Daily Vox. Read more of his writing here or follow him on twitter.
– Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
