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By ANA Reporter 
10h ago
JOHANNESBURG – The Democratic Alliance on Friday criticized what it called an attempt by corporate bailout professionals at national airline SAA to blackmail taxpayers, through the government, into giving the struggling airline another bailout.
On Thursday, rescue practitioners Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said South African Airways’ financial situation was dire and that they could not continue trying to revive their fortune unless the government made short-term agreed funds available for the next week. .
In July, creditors approved a revival plan for the deficit airline, which has been under a corporate bailout since last December, that will see 2,700 employees laid off.
Under the plan, the government, which has already disbursed R16.4 billion to meet debt obligations that the deficit national carrier cannot pay, must contribute just over R10 billion in addition to paying severance packages and helping to the airline to resume operations.
In July, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni clarified in court documents that the government had not promised to advance the required financing, but to “mobilize” to obtain it, possibly from strategic capital partners.
On Friday, DA lawmaker and member of Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, Alf Lees, said that business rescue professionals were trying to “drive the proverbial knife to the throat of South African taxpayers” and this should not be accepted.
“The ANC (African National Congress) government is still under legal advice from the DA on the use of taxpayer funds to finance another SAA bailout,” he said in a statement.
“We will not hesitate to go back to court if the ministers of Public Companies and Finance dare to cross this line.”
The latest advisory from rescuers only served to confirm that recent government claims that SAA was receiving unsolicited investment offers from private actors were not serious and only designed to placate South African taxpayers, Lees added.
With a month before the announcement of Mboweni’s medium-term budget policy statement, the country’s main opposition party will remain vigilant and ensure that South Africans are not “ambushed” by a shocking announcement of another SAA bailout, he said.
“StatsSA just announced the worst GDP contraction in SA’s history and the district attorney will oppose the ANC government’s predilection for funding its SAA vanity project at the expense of South Africans who lost their jobs and saw it collapse their small businesses during the Covid-19 period, ”Lees said.
Statistics from South Africa said on Tuesday that gross domestic product plummeted by a record 51 percent in the second quarter of 2020 as the economy suffered a severe blow from a government lockdown imposed on March 27 to try to contain the Covid-19. Since then, the restrictions have been gradually eased.
On Thursday, SAA business rescuers said funds available for operating expenses were nearing exhaustion. They said they will inform affected parties on September 17 if there has been any progress in the financing negotiations.
If not enough progress is made, there will be a meeting of creditors the next day on the way forward.
African News Agency / ANA
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