SAA sale not yet concluded, Gordhan tells Scopa

Gordhan appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday to brief members on the government's disposal of its majority shareholding in SAA.

"This transaction has not yet been concluded thus the partner is not yet a partner,” he said.

"If the partner is not yet a partner and does not have the 51% in its hands at the moment then clearly it will not contribute any money until the transaction itself has been concluded."

In December 2019, the embattled airline was placed under business rescue.

SAA emerged from the business rescue process in April 2021 where Takatso Consortium was announced as the 51% majority stakeholder.

Gordhan says SAA is using the R2 billion which government set aside to keep it going in the interim.

"What SAA is running on at the moment is the R2 billion set aside as part of the R10.5 billion for what was called interim flying. The revenue that they are generating plus the R2 billion in various forms has been utilised for various purposes.

"That is why we would like to conclude this process sooner rather than later so that the responsibility for funding the operations of SAA becomes the responsibility of the majority shareholder." 

Appearing before Scopa last week, the auditor-general's office revealed that May would mark four years since the office had received financial statements from the airline. 

The AG's office also told Parliament that it had not seen the agreement between SAA and Takatso Consortium.

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