Numsa hoping to reach agreement on SA Express liquidation process

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) says it is hoping that the government and liquidators will reach a common ground to save airline South African (SA) Express.

SA Express will remain under provisional liquidation for a while longer, following a high court order which has granted liquidators an extension of three months to further probe the airlines’ financial woes.

The airline is under provisional liquidation following an earlier high court ruling in April, which left several staffers out in the cold as most allegedly did not receive their salaries since the end of February.

On Tuesday, the day which was intended to be the final day for the court to issue a final way forward on the liquidation process, an application was filed to further extend the term of the provisional liquidators.

This extension for an extended term of three months, until 9 September was granted around midday.

Speaking on Power98.7, said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.

“What we are hoping for in this process is that between the department of public enterprises (DPE) and liquidators at SA Express will be able to find each other and hopefully an agreement can be reached on the future of SA Express that does not involve liquidation,” Hlubi-Majola said.

She said the extension to find an investor at the airline would allow the two parties to reach a mutual agreement on the matter.

“Hopefully come 9 September the narrative will be different. Hopefully, they will be coming to court to say there’s no need to liquidate because we have found each other.”

The union has said an investor from the United Arab Emirates is interested in buying a stake in SA Express.

However, in terms of law in the country, foreign ownership in domestic airlines is limited to 25%.

Hlubi-Majola further said DPE had shown interest in engaging despite the share limitation on foreign ownership.

“What we do know is that DPE seems interested in what’s been put on the table. This is not the only shareholder we engaged. There were others who were interested but this was the one showed keen interest going as far as formally approaching DPE.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.