Does Parliament have the authority to grant SAA a further lifeline?

25 July 2016

The DA has formally requested the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, to seek a legal opinion regarding Parliament’s authority in law to grant an extension delaying the deadline for the tabling of the SAA annual financial statements (AFS) as per the Minister of Finance’s request on 07 July 2016. 

It is in our contention that there is no provision made in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) whereby Parliament is given the authority to extend the deadline. Parliament must give effect to this deadline and interrogate these long overdue financials. 

This comes after Parliament, this morning, tabled the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan’s letter requesting such an extension.

We firmly believe that the request for an extension should be denied. SAA is currently in possession of exorbitant government guarantees, which represent a significant risk to the economy and the fiscus, and is asking for more. The long-overdue AFS have been outstanding since 15 September 2015, that is 10 months. 10 months that Parliament has not been able to exercise its oversight role, 10 months of no accountability at SAA and 10 months of open defiance of directives issued by the National Treasury.

The Minister of Finance has not been able to implement the turnaround plan that he announced in February 2016. This stalemate between Minister Gordhan and SAA Board Chairperson, Dudu Myeni, is rapidly driving SAA to total collapse and simply can’t be allowed to happen to the national carrier. 

The DA will continue to explore all avenues available in order to ensure a clean and successful SAA.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, 25 July 2016