SAA: Bail-out or not? #haveyoursay

Parliament has learnt that South African Airways (SAA) needs another R4.8bn bailout immediately after the recent R10bn bailout received in December 2017.

Read the article below and have your say on whether the ailing state-owned enterprise should be given yet another lifeline

Parliament told further R4.8bn needed immediately after December R10bn bailout

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) was told on 24 April that SAA needs another R4.8bn immediately. This is after National Treasury gave a R10bn bail-out to SAA in December 2017 so that it could be deemed a going concern on 31 March 2017 by the Auditor-General.

Asked if the R4.8bn was required to prevent SAA from grinding to a halt, SAA CEO, Vuyani Jarana, told SCOPA it was needed immediately, keeping in mind that SAA has no credit line, there is a cash ban and a gap between revenue and expenses, so there is a need for capital to sustain the operations.

He said the R10bn paid by government in December 2017 had R7.6bn going to pay lenders and R2.4bn was supporting working capital requirements. Out of the 64 aircraft that the SAA Group has, nine are owned and the rest are leased. Long haul carriers are being used for domestic routes which is not ideal and all the domestic routes were loss making even though they were full. The balance sheet could not support the purchase of new aircraft.

At present, SAA was paying only the interest on its debts and not the principal. At the meeting, Deputy Finance Minister, Mondli Gungubele, said the grave financial crisis at SAA had resulted in the Finance Minister commissioning the Deputy Minister and a Treasury team to hold weekly meetings with SAA. He said SCOPA would be briefed on the Long-Term Turnaround Strategy which aims for SAA to break even in 2021.

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