Gordhan and Mboweni must break their wall of silence on SAA Business Rescue Process

20 August 2020

Note to editors: Please find a letter to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan dated 2 July 2020 attached. 

Today, I have written to Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance, and Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises, to request that they bring the nation into their confidence and provide details of the negotiations that they are reportedly having with potential investors in South African Airways (SAA).

Both Ministers have maintained a wall of silence since they last made an undertaking to source the funds required to enable the SAA business rescue plan to be implemented.

The reported resignation of Nico Bezuidenhout as CEO of Mango airline, a subsidiary of SAA, is yet another indication of the futility of the Les Matuson and SiviweDongwana R33 billion business rescue plan that requires R10.4 billion cash just to get SAA, Mango and South African Airways Technical (SAAT) back into business.

A month after promising to raise the funding required in order to implement the SAA business rescue plan that was approved by creditors on 24 July 2020, there is no sign of these funds being made available. The resignation of Nico Bezuidenhout as Mango CEO after just 10 months in the job is a clear indication that he has no confidence in Gordhan and Mboweni being able to make the funds available for the so-called rescue of SAA.

In terms of the Matuson/Dongwana SAA business rescue plan, R1 billion is required just to get Mango back in the air. Bezuidenhout’s resignation is a clear indication that he has no confidence in even the R1 billion for Mango to be made available by the Gordhan and Mboweni conjurers.

Whilst Ministers Mboweni and Gordhan muddle along with no apparent progress to find the required R10.4 billion, the employees of SAA, Mango and SAAT sit in limbo either not being paid salaries, or retrenched in order for them to be able to access the UIF retrenchment benefits that are due to them. A most cruel attitude displayed by very senior cabinet ministers.

It seems clear that after 18 months since we asked the commercial banks to stop their immoral, risk-free and profitable financial support of SAA they may finally have conceded that they were wrong to pay, what was ostensibly, taxpayer money to SAA and have refused to make additional funding available to provide the initial R10.4 billion required by the SAA so-called business rescue plan. If this is the case, we are pleased that they will have finally done the correct and ethical thing.

Issued by Alf Lees,DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 20 August 2020