Acsa responds to EFF criticism over mooted asset sale

Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has responded to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) statement suggesting that Acsa’s proposal to sell “non-core assets” would weaken “one of the most successfully ran state-owned entities”.

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“Airports Company South Africa wishes to point out that it is an entity of the Department of Transport, and not the Department of Public Enterprises as insinuated in the statement,” reads Acsa’s statement.

The company went on to explain that the “revised financial plan for transaction advisory services” did not envisage the sale of assets, but the “investigation of options to monetise Acsa’s investment property portfolio”.

“In May of last year, Acsa presented its revised financial plan to the portfolio committee of transport detailing that we plan on exploring various options to mitigate the financial challenges caused by the Covid-19 impact.

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It said that it required about R11 billion over six years to get back to its pre-Covid performance levels.

On Tuesday, Acsa announced that it was aiming to monetise some of its assets, including filling stations, hotels, and cargo terminals worth over R4.4 billion, in a move to mitigate the impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the aviation industry.

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