SAA could adopt Telkom model of governance: report

Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says that the government would consider a shareholder structure similar to Telkom, for South African Airways.

Telkom runs independently from the government, despite it having a 37% stake in the listed entity, while state-owned Public Investment Corp holds approximately 15%. The rest is owned by institutional investors and the public.

“Telkom is an interesting model that we could actually look at as we go forward,” Gordhan reportedly said to eNCA.

The National Treasury last week committed to support and source funding for the airline’s new business rescue plan.

It is projected that R10.1 billion will be required to fund the plan. This money will be used to:

• Clean up and establish the balance sheet;
• Restructure the rest of the group entities that are not in business rescue;
• Provide working capital for the rest of the group’s entities;
• Create a stable and viable platform for a new restructured national airline.

The restructuring will also include severance packages to about 2,700 SAA employees who will be retrenched, the Department of Public Enterprises said.

Read: SAA 2.0 gets the green light