Treasury mulls enlisting JZ

National Treasury might enlist the help of President Jacob Zuma, pictured, to secure the “repatriation” of South African Airways (SAA) funds from African states, Deputy Finance Minister Sifiso Buthelezi told MPs yesterday.

Buthelezi told parliament’s standing committee on finance the efforts to get the funds back could “include going to talk to the president to see if he would make himself available should he need to talk to his counterparts in Angola, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Nigeria”.

More than R1 billion of SAA’s reserves are stuck in foreign currency in these four countries and it is exacerbating cash flow.

Buthelezi and top SAA management were briefing the committee on SAA’s financial challenges and its turnaround plan, but drew criticism from committee chairman Yunus Carrim for speaking in what he termed “generalisations” and offering little detail.

MPs also repeatedly asked how the SAA board had adapted its approach to ensure that the company, which is losing R250 million a month, returns to financial stability.

“It is quite a broad statement and there is not one area that you can focus on. We look at the whole business in terms of what can be done,” SAA board chair Dudu Myeni said. She stressed that the cost of doing business remained too high.

She said the board was committed to reviewing the turnaround strategy and identifying the “gaps that we think is the reason why the full-blown implementation is not happening”.

Acting director-general of finance Dondo Mogajane said recapitalisation of SAA has clearly been on the cards since then finance minister Pravin Gordhan tabled the national budget in February, though a figure has yet to be determined.

He confirmed that Treasury would come to parliament with a sum to be approved in the medium-term budget in October.

SAA’s long-term strategy is currently being reviewed. – ANA