DA calls on creditors to object to SAA business rescue practitioners’ extension request to publish business rescue plan
8 June 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on creditors to vote against the South African Airways (SAA) business rescue practitioners’ (BRP) request for a fifth extension to publish the airline’s business rescue plan.
The BRPs, Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana have indicated that they are seeking this delay until 15 June 2020 due to unions objecting to the plan being published today and to give them extra time to engage the government on the draft plan.
This latest extension makes a complete mockery of the entire business rescue process and we are dismayed by the fact that Matuson and Dongwana have succumbed to pressure from the unions.
The DA has questioned the SAA business rescue process from the beginning and this latest delay is confirmation that the BRPs were never in control of the process.
The Companies Act clearly indicated that the business rescue plan must be published within twenty five days after the date on which the BRPs were appointed. The BRPs have therefore had six months, which is considerably more than the period stipulated in the Companies Act, to present their business rescue plan to creditors. The process, which was supposed to be finalized on 5 March 2020, is now three months overdue.
The continued delays and extensions raise red flags about the validity and legality of the business rescue process, It is for this reason that the DA’s Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Ghaleb Cachalia MP, requested that the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) review the fiduciary validity of the business rescue process at SAA.
SAA cannot be saved and unless a private investor is found it must be liquidated. The DA will oppose any and every attempt by the ANC government to pump taxpayer money into a vanity project that does not contribute any benefit to South Africa’s fragile economy.
Issued by Alf Lees, DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 8 June 2020
