Lance Greyling, the ID Chief Whip in Parliament has slammed SAA for apparently failing to renew its website for online bookings, resulting in the closure of the website until this morning.

Mr Greyling says he and a number of other visitors to the site yesterday were greeted with a notice saying, "flysaa.com expired on 01/17/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion."

"Considering that the date cited on the website was 17 January, this could have been going on for almost a week," says Greyling.

"One wonders how it is possible that a company the size of the national carrier can reach a level of such incompetence that it forgets to renew its website.

"As a public enterprise that is pivotal to the success of Soccer World Cup 2010, this incompetence does not bode well for the future. As an airline that is at the frontline of forming tourists’ perceptions about our country, SAA must come clean on who is responsible for this frightening level of incompetence," Greyling says.

"The Minister must urgently intervene and ensure that this does not happen again. She must also remind all public entities that they drastically need to lift their standards, whether they are directly involved in making the World Cup a success or not."