Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is once again seeking to calm the nerves of South African Airways (SAA) employees who are doubtful of the company’s future and, ultimately, their job security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a speech at SAA headquarters in Airways Park on Monday (18 March), Gordhan sought to convey his confidence in the airline’s management, which he says boasts a “zero tolerance of corruption.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the airline would not fail and implored workers to ignore the naysayers – and to be grateful to the government that the airline is still here at all and not liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“SAA is here to stay. SAA will grow. SAA will expand. Don\u2019t allow negativity to come near us,” said Gordhan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have rebuilt the airline, and it will make profit that can support the fiscus instead of looking for bailouts from the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We should be grateful to the government for the role it played to avoid liquidation – our ambition is that SAA will make enough profit to pay the government dividends,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gordhan has echoed these sentiments since the recent announcement that the deal to sell 51% of SAA to Takatso Consortium is off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally, there was an agreement that 51% of the state-owned airline would be sold to private consortium, Takatso, for R51 on the condition that, over time, the group would inject R3 billion of capital in the form of a shareholder loan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the deal fell through – with one of the central disagreements being the reevaluated value of SAA, which was initially determined during the Covid pandemic when the airline was on the verge of being liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notably, SAA was already grounded and in deep financial trouble before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SAA is in desperate need of turning around the state of its finances, with the most recent financial reporting presenting a net loss (April – December 2023) of R761 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This excludes billions in accumulated historical debt the airline has been attempting to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SAA – which Gordhan said would be able to sustain itself for the next 12 – 18 months – is now looking at new ways to raise capital following last week\u2019s announcement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going forward, Gordhan said that the airline would turn its focus to implementing its corporate plan and expanding its route network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n