SAA BRP’s latest ‘blackmail notice’ for a bailout should be rejected outright

11 September 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the latest ‘notice to affected persons’ by SAA’s Business Rescue Practitioners stating that the continuation of the business rescue proceedings will depend on the provision of timeous short term funding from government during the course of next week.

We want to make it clear that this attempt by SAA’s BRPs to hold the proverbial knife to South African taxpayer’s throats and demand a bailout should not be accepted. The ANC government is still under legal notice from the DA on the use of taxpayer funds to finance another SAA bailout. We will not hesitate to go back to court if the Ministers of Public Enterprises and Finance dare to cross this line.

The latest notice by the BRPs only serves to confirm that the recent claims that SAA was receiving unsolicited investment bids from private players were not serious and were designed to placate South African taxpayers who will likely land up paying out R10.4 billion to save the SAA vanity project of the ANC.

With a month to go before the announcement of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) by Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance, the DA will remain vigilant and ensure that South Africans are not ‘ambushed’ by a shock announcement for another SAA bailout.

StatsSA just announced the worst GDP contraction in SA’s history and the DA will oppose the ANC government’s predilection with financing their SAA vanity project at the expense of South Africans who have lost their jobs and seen their small businesses collapse during the Covid-19 period.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 11 September 2020