SAA holds Mango staff to ransom

In a showing of he-man tactics, South African Airways’ (SAA) attorneys wrote to Mango’s unions saying while its board has approved, according to a source, R31 million in bridging finance, funds will not be paid across to the budget airline unless the three trade unions that have filed to place Mango in business rescue withdraw its motion.

Since last May, the budget carrier’s management and board have lobbied SAA and uber shareholder Public Enterprises to place it in protection. Nothing has happened until now when staff had finally had enough and acted.

Mango’s board, under then chair Peter Tshisevhe, could also have gone alone and applied for business rescue, “but that may have upset the cadre apple-cart”, said a source with experience in department of public enterprises and state machinations.

The unions, Numsa, the SA Cabin Crew Association and the Mango Pilot’s Association, yesterday invited Mango creditors to join it.

“We are not going to be strongarmed by the very people who have rejected 12 months’ of pleas and refuse to work with us to save Mango in a responsible and measured manner,” says chair of the Mango Pilots’ Association Jordan Butler.

“We all know how SAA’s business rescue went.”

In addition, should Minister Pravin Gordhan’s public enterprises not participate, the airline is no longer a state asset.

“But it’s not as if they hadn’t successfully smothered their own baby.”

In its correspondence to the unions yesterday, SAA’s attorneys told Mango employees the shareholder’s board resolved to place the airline into business rescue in April. It was apparently signed off by Gordhan last Thursday.

“But CIPC [Companies and Intellectual Property Commission] documents were not filed at the time of our application,” says Jordan, “and a board resolution after a year of trading recklessly is pretty meaningless.”

“It’s a low-ball offer,” said the source.

“It reeks of aggressive negotiating tactics or acting to the department’s instruction to keep control of the situation. If the ‘bridging finance’ became known, other creditors including Aergen could move on Mango much quicker.”

– news@citizen.co.za