[ad_1]
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is expected to announce some funding to get SAA off the ground again.
Silas Stein / Picture Alliance via Getty Images
South African Airways Chairman of the Board of Directors Thandeka Mgoduso has resigned after having been in office for about a year.
She was also a non-executive director of the conflicting state airline.
His resignation comes ahead of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s medium-term budget policy statement, which he will present to Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. Mboweni may announce some funding for the national flag carrier to take off again.
While the airline’s business rescue plan foresees that an additional R10.5 billion is needed to restructure the airline, some experts say this will not be enough, pointing to the possibility that more bailouts will be needed in the future.
SAA’s shareholder Public Enterprises Department told Fin24 on Wednesday that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan expressed gratitude for Mgoduso’s “contribution and efforts to steer the business towards a more sustainable future.”
According to the DPE, a new interim board will be announced as part of an effort to create a new and completely restructured SAA, working with a new executive team “to take the airline to the skies in the new year.”
Meanwhile, forecasts for airline passenger demand used by SAA’s business rescue professionals in their plans for a “new” airline are now out of date. At the time creditors agreed to the bailout plan in June this year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) anticipated that airline revenue levels would be 60% of what they were during calendar year 2019 within two years. However, the association’s latest forecasts now anticipate an even weaker than expected recovery.
