Reject another SAA bailout outright, DA fumes

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the latest “notice to affected persons” by SAA’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) stating that the continuation of the business rescue proceedings will depend on the provision of timeous short-term funding from government during the course of next week, the party’s Alf Lees said in a statement.

“We want to make it clear that this attempt by SAA’s BRPs to hold the proverbial knife to South African taxpayer’s throats and demand a bailout should not be accepted,” said Lees, who is also a member of parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

“The ANC government is still under legal notice from the DA on the use of taxpayer funds to finance another SAA bailout. We will not hesitate to go back to court if the Ministers of Public Enterprises and Finance dare to cross this line.”

He added that the latest notice by the BRPs “only serves to confirm that the recent claims that SAA was receiving unsolicited investment bids from private players were not serious and were designed to placate South African taxpayers, who will likely land up paying out R10.4 billion to save the SAA vanity project of the ANC”.

ALSO READ: Government says it has received ’10 offers to buy SAA’

“With a month to go before the announcement of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) by Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance, the DA will remain vigilant and ensure that South Africans are not ‘ambushed’ by a shock announcement for another SAA bailout,” Lees said.

“StatsSA just announced the worst GDP contraction in SA’s history and the DA will oppose the ANC government’s predilection with financing their SAA vanity project at the expense of South Africans who have lost their jobs and seen their small businesses collapse during the Covid-19 period.”

This comes after the BRPs set next Thursday, 17 September, as a deadline for securing more funds to continue with the business rescue process.

ALSO READ: Crunch time for SAA as business rescue runs out of money

They said they would on that date announce the progress made in securing the funds.

If enough progress hasn’t been made, they will convene a creditors’ meeting on Friday, 18 September to discuss the way forward.

They also said that without getting more money the business rescue plan could not be implemented, but government had undertaken to supply the rest of the necessary funding next week.

Meanwhile, the Public Enterprises Department said that efforts to finalise the business rescue process and a decision on the sources of funding would be announced soon, EWN reports.

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