Mango staff and public enterprises dept meet in court today

Mango staff and the department of public enterprises (DPE) go head-to-head today in the High Court in Johannesburg in an effort to get the low-cost airline placed in business rescue.

Organised labour at Mango filed the application after more than a year of salary cuts, two months of zero pay, a liquidation application and two groundings.

Late last week, an attempt by Mango’s parent company, South African Airways (SAA), to go the business rescue route was rejected by the Company and Intellectual Property Commission because documents were filed three months too late.

After leaving the airline in limbo for months, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan only gave the go-ahead for business rescue on 22 July.

In a change to its original stance, the DPE said last week it viewed business rescue as a “better option than liquidation”.

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse chief executive Wayne Duvenage said: “These developments are outrageous and show a disregard of fiduciary duties. Add to that, the moral duty toward airline staff and taxpayers.

“This conduct starts to confirm thoughts of the conflict between SAA’s strategic equity partner Takatso, who owns low-cost carrier Lift, and the possible inaction to ensure Mango’s demise.”

SA Cabin Crew Association president Zazi Nsibanyoni-Mugambi said: “After being asked by the shareholder to be trusted, it’s terrifying to think what may have happened if we had, indeed, trusted them.

“There are unknown intentions at play here and we believe the shareholder is simply not being honest with us.”

Duvenage said: “The fact that there have been inquorate boards at SAA and Mango for long occasions is a disgrace and shows contempt toward the necessary processes that govern and ensure competent and timeous decisions are being taken. This is political meddling at its best and people need to be held accountable.”

Earlier, in the week, SAA had tried to strong-arm labour by offering bridging finance to Mango that would have settled a single month’s pay, on condition the unions withdrew the application set for today’s roll.

Mango is currently grounded for nonpayment of Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) bills. SAA interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo serves on the ATNS board and was previously its interim CEO.

Democratic Alliance spokesperson Alf Lees said the party “will do everything in its power to expose the truth about the possible role that Pravin Gordhan …and Kgathatso Thakudi, director-general of the DPE, may have played in misleading or possibly even lying to parliament about the planned future for Mango, as well as the seeming intention never to pay out the R819 million bailout for Mango.”

Mango Pilots’ Association chair Jordan Butler said: “The joint unions eagerly await the High Court ruling. We hope that we can begin to finally move forward and get Mango back on the runway to success.”

– news@citizen.co.za