No, South African Airways does not procure bottled water at above market rates

The post from December 6, 2018 has since garnered 2,431 likes and 2,129 retweets - one of the retweets is from former leader of South Africa's main opposition party and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille asking for the claim to be verified or dispelled.

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a screenshot of the tweet on December 6, 2018

The claim is also gaining traction on Facebook with multiple posts of the exact tweet.

When the claim originally surfaced in 2017, the airline released a statement on December 28, 2017 rejecting it as ‘baseless and misleading’. SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali told AFP, “it was false then and claims are false now”.

Tlali said the claim implies  collusion or mismanagement by SAA. “Either way, the suggestion is in bad taste because there is no factual basis for this,” he said.

“We find it curious and we don’t know if it is a campaign calculated to undermine the airline’s efforts as it makes progress in implementing its turnaround strategy.”

Motshidisi Mokwena, Head of Reputation and Regulatory Affairs for Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa told AFP that there is no third party involvement in the procurement of bottled water, “we don’t know where she (the person who first made the claim) got her information from… we supply SAA directly.” 

South Africa's troubled flag carrier has been running at a loss for a decade. It lost 5.7 billion rand ($420 million) in 2017-18.

Tlali said the company would be consulting with their legal team.

“We operate in a highly competitive environment where perception about the brand has an impact and influences consumer decision making...we are going to consider all legal options available to us and on the basis of proper legal advice, we will then decide on what the next steps are”, he said.