Numsa pushes Gordhan to approve Mango sale
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Wednesday accused Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan of sabotaging efforts to rescue beleaguered low-cost airline Mango.
Earlier this month, the High Court in Pretoria compelled Gordhan to decide on the sale of the troubled airline, which is a subsidiary of South African Airways (SAA), as proposed by the business rescue practitioner, within 30 days.
A week later, the minister’s office released a statement saying he was studying the judgment and would not give in to pressure over the airline’s business rescue process, which began in July 2021.
Gordhan said he’d asked for additional information from the business rescue practitioner, in line with the Public Finance Management Act, that would allow him to make a “sound decision”.
This included a detailed business plan to assess the consortium's viability, comprehensive due diligence, and foreign ownership details to comply with South African laws.
“At no point will I abandon my fiduciary responsibility to ensure that any decision that is taken regarding the future of Mango is consistent with the prescripts of the law and is in the best interest of the public,” said Gordhan.
“I will not be bullied to act in a manner that will compromise the work of government in this regard.”
Reacting to this, Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said Gordhan’s response to the court ruling inspired little confidence that he had any intention of respecting the court order.
“The so-called concerns raised by the minister in his statement, which he claims are preventing him from making a decision, are nothing more than desperate and unnecessary delay tactics because these issues were thoroughly ventilated in court.
“Numsa is demanding to know whether Gordhan intends to adhere to the court order or whether his goal is to collapse Mango like he did with SA Express,” Hlubi-Majola said.
Numsa joined the business rescue practitioner, Sipho Sono, in his court application to force the minister to make the decision on the matter.
READ: Unions warn of ‘jobs bloodbath’ as Mango recovery stalls
According to reports, Sono argued the information the minister requested for the aforementioned information would disenfranchise the prospective investors as Mango and SAA would be competitors should the sale go through.
The trade union rubbished the concerns raised by Gordhan and insisted that he approve the proposed sale of Mango Airlines to an equity partner whose name was yet to be revealed.
The union said while it did not support the privatisation of state assets, it had the interests of workers whose employment prospects hung in limbo.
“SA Express was liquidated because of Gordhan’s failures, and it seems Denel and Eskom may suffer the same fate because of Gordhan’s disastrous track record. If the minister gets his way, then all those workers who are hoping to be re-employed by the airline when it resumes operations will be permanently unemployed.”
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