Gordhan hits back over calls for probe into deal
THE Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan has hit back at the chairperson of the portfolio committee, Khaya Magaxa, and accused him of going beyond his mandate when the committee was investigating the South African Airways (SAA) deal.
He said Magaxa seemed intent on engaging in activities other than to seek answers on the deal between SAA and the Takatso consortium.
Gordhan said this after Magaxa said the committee had agreed to ask the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe the sale of the airline.
Takasto was set to buy a 51% stake at SAA, but the deal fell through a few weeks ago.
Members of the committee have been calling for answers from Gordhan since last year after former
Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi said that there were irregularities in the deal.
However, this was denied by Gordhan who said everything was above board.
The department of public enterprises said Magaxa had gone beyond the mandate of their work of looking into the matter.
It said Magaxa has gone on a rogue campaign to besmirch the department and Gordhan.
“In essence, Magaxa has turned a legitimate oversight exercise into a kangaroo court at which the department of public enterprises and its staff have been slandered, denigrated, and pilloried for the sake of politicking.
“Despite Parliamentary legal adviser Andile Tetyana declaring in his briefing to the committee last week that he found no sign of corruption in the proposed transaction, Magaxa insisted on Wednesday that he would ask the speaker to institute an investigation by the SIU into what was the proposed SAA-Takatso deal that has since been terminated by mutual agreement,” said the department.
It said the process had been hijacked for political purposes.
The airline was still looking for a new strategic equity partner.
SAA has received billions of rand in bailouts from government over the last few years.
Their audited financial statements submitted to Parliament showed that the airline had incurred losses of more than R23 billion.
The airline had not submitted its audited results in the last few years.
But the sale of the majority stake to Takatso raised concerns with parliamentarians from all sides saying the deal was mired in secrecy and they wanted Gordhan to come clean on it.
They wanted all the documents on the sale of SAA to be made available to the committee.
But Gordhan had said these were confidential documents and members of the committee needed to have a closed session on this matter.