Telkom finance chief to help fix nosediving SAA

Long-time Telkom finance executive Deon Fredericks has been seconded to help the struggling state-owned airline SAA with its turnaround efforts.

Fredericks, who served as CFO of Telkom when the group successfully implemented its own turnaround plan, moved to a newly created role of chief investment officer of the fixedline telecoms operator in July.

His secondment to SAA as interim CFO will last 12 months from October 15, the airline said in a statement.

Cash-strapped SAA, which already relies on R19.1bn in state guarantees to stay in business, has asked for a further bailout of R21.7bn over the next three years to implement its turnaround strategy.

The airline, which missed a deadline to submit its annual report for the 2017/2018 year to parliament by the end of September, as required by law, is expected to report a loss of R5.7bn, and to continue making losses for the next two years.

Delays in tabling financial statements are often due to concerns flagged by the auditorgeneral over whether an entity is a going concern.

In September, SAA rival — privately owned Comair — reported the highest after-tax profit of its history in the year to end-June, marking 72 uninterrupted profitable years.

Fredericks replaces turnaround specialist and former SA Revenue Service finance chief Bob Head, who joined SAA in May as interim CFO on a sixmonth contract that ended on September 30.

“We welcome the appointment of Mr Fredericks to ensure that SAA’s strategic objective of transforming the business into a financially sustainable aviation group is achieved,” SAA chair JB Magwaza said in the statement.