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Global Impact Investments seeking to turn SA Express around

12th January 2022

By: Donna Slater

Features Deputy Editor and Chief Photographer

     

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The postponement of a hearing on the liquidation of troubled domestic airline South African (SA) Express until July 4 has been welcomed by Global Impact Investments – which is involved with fundraising efforts in its endeavour to relaunch SA Express as a viable, commercial business.

Global Impact Investments aims to turn SA Express around, using the remaining resources and labour force as the building blocks for a reborn regional airline, which will initially launch its services within South Africa, to expand, in time, into the wider Southern African region.

This fundraising campaign is led by venture capitalist and Global Impact Investments executive chairperson Chris Hart and will involve some equity crowdfunding, with the ultimate aim of assuming control over the former State-run airline and giving it a “bright, new, commercially viable future”.

However, he says SA Express is currently in the headlines “for all the wrong reasons” as it was “polluted by State capture”, as is shown in the first section of the Zondo Commission report released earlier this month. SA Express was a victim of State capture after operational funds were diverted to corrupt individuals.

“. . . all members of the rescue team are confident that if [SA Express] can be efficiently, safely and ethically run, this vital element of South Africa’s transport infrastructure can be saved, and it will fly again,” states Hart.

He adds that, although a lot has been heard from the government on the imperative of expanding infrastructure to better incorporate the regions into the national economy, corruption and the Covid-19 pandemic have had a devastating impact on the airline industry.

“This cannot be accepted without a fightback and we offer a new promise of regional economic revival and development if we can expand the movement of people and goods to and from the more remote outposts of South Africa.

“Of course, this has to be done on a commercial basis, but we do have a sound business plan. There can be no doubt that the principles and commercial practices of the private sector will succeed where the captured State has failed,” says Hart.

He admits, however, that, at a time when the transport industry globally is in deep trouble, cynics will suggest that it is “lunacy” to try to revive an airline with such a troubled record as SA Express.

In this regard, he points out that air travel demand is increasing as South Africa’s economy continues to open up.

“South Africa needs better transport infrastructure, with improved links to the region, and we will extract what is good from a failed airline and take it to the skies again. If it needs re-branding and a re-launch, so be it,” he says.

“We can take the skeleton of this business and use it as the foundation for a new, viable airline – avoiding the mistakes that led to its demise,” says Hart.

Meanwhile, he warns that if SA Express was allowed to disappear, jobs, economic activity and the potential for boosting economic growth, would also be destroyed.

In this regard, Hart says SA Express is poised to be part of the economic revival of South Africa’s more remote towns and rural areas, providing vital links with metropolitan areas.

“A reborn SA Express is not the entire solution, but we can, and we will make it part of our country's economic revival. Something good must rise from the ashes of State capture,” he concludes.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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