Photo by: Reuters
Trade union Solidarity announced on Sunday that it was to start court proceedings to place State-owned and financially very troubled national carrier South African Airways (SAA) under business rescue. In an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, the union also warned that it believed that the financial and management models of SAA were “unsustainable and ineffective”.
“Solidarity invites the President and Ministers to support its application to place SAA under business rescue,” stated the union’s deputy chief executive, Werner Human. He pointed out that the Auditor General had recently stated in a report that there was significant uncertainty as to whether SAA could continue as a going concern.
He also noted that the President and both Ministers had expressed “harsh” opinions about SAA and had promised to turn it around. “At present, there is no other choice but to privatise SAA, at least in part,” opined Human.